Power supply in Luzon back to normal

MANILA, Philippines - Power supply in Luzon returned to normal lastTuesday, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla told reporters yesterday.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the grid’s capacity stood at 8,068 megawatts against a demand of 7,515 MW. This translated to reserves of 553 MW.

On Monday, the Luzon grid went on red alert because of forced outages of some plants, including the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas. A red alert means there is severe power deficiency.

A gas supply restriction at the deep water to gas Malampaya facility also tightened the output of the Ilijan natural gas power plant.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, implemented one-hour rotating blackouts in its franchise area on Monday.

Petilla said the Calaca plant went online on Monday afternoon at 3:41 p.m.

In an advisory yesterday, Meralco said there were no scheduled blackouts even as power reserves remained thin.

It was not the first time that power plants went on forced outages, but it highlighted the problem of aging power plants.

Aging power plants are also being blamed for the growing incidence of emergency and extended maintenance shutdowns of the country’s power plants, highlighting the need for new power facilities, officials said.