The Luzon and Visayas grids were placed under red and yellow alerts Wednesday beginning 3 p.m. as 49 power plants were either on forced outage or de-rated again. This meant the loss of 2,123.3 megawatts (MW) of power in the Luzon and Visayas grids.
The yellow alert was raised in the Visayas grid from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. as 20 power plant units were on forced outage and nine more operated on de-rated capacity. A total 604.4 MW was lost to the grid.
The alerts were off on the 21st and 22nd of April but raised again on Tuesday.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the available capacity in Luzon totaled only 12,832 MW even as peak demand totaled 12,671 MW. In the Visayas, only 2,742 MW was available against peak demand of 2,571 MW.
As consequence, both the Manila Electric Co. and the Department of Energy (DOE) called on industrial scale electricity users greater participation in the interruptible load program (ILP) to help ensure continued electricity supply throughout the dry months ahead.
Under the ILP, customers with large electricity consumption run their own generator sets as electricity supply fall short of demand in exchange for monetary incentives. The fuel they use is compensated for by consumers.
“We call for your support and cooperation for the country’s objective of having continuous power supply by participating in the ILP and being part of the solution to the power supply challenges,” said Irma Exconde, DOE director of the Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, in a webinar organized by Meralco for enterprise customers.
Meralco said the ILP program kicked in 27 times in its franchise since 2014. Last week alone, the program successfully spared 1.9 million households from power interruptions.
“The active participation of ILP participants in the Meralco franchise area in recent days is worth highlighting as it helped relieve pressure from the power grid, sparing thousands of small businesses and households from rotating power interruptions,” Ma. Cecilia Domingo, Meralco vice president and head for enterprise and national government, said.
A total 239 service accounts have enrolled in the ILP at present, generating 530 MW of capacity, Meralco said.
