DOE says more yellow alerts likely in May

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy is keeping its eyes peeled on power interruptions in May as energy supply remained thin amid the dry season.

That was the assessment of the DOE on Tuesday, as the power supply across Luzon, particularly, nearly went kaput on Monday.

“We have potential yellow alerts for the entire month of May,” said DOE undersecretary Rowena Guevarra.

The state issues a yellow alert when the power supply, in reserve, falls below levels they deem ideal. A red alert, wherein reserves fall below 4% of maintaining levels, is issued at heights of peak demand, as was the case on Monday when some areas in Luzon faced rotating brownouts.

The Philippines is currently facing extreme heat spells owing to a bout of El Nino.

The DOE based that projection using current data and worst-case scenarios, as the energy supply across the Luzon Grid remained thin since the Ilijan power plant is set to go online this month. That particular power plant, located in Batangas, is operated by San Miguel Corp. subsidiary, SMC Global Power.

That said, the energy department explained that yesterday’s incident, which precipitated yellow and red alerts, came as the Masinloc-Bolo 230 Kilovolts transmission line of the National Grid Corporation was tripped.

The DOE said this was the reason why two units of the Masinloc coal-fired power plants were nearly crippled at 1 pm on Monday, squarely in the middle of peak demand. That took away 680 megawatts from the Luzon grid.

The Pangilinan-led Meralco immediately lightened the burden on the grid, since receiving the red alert notice by 2 pm. The DOE noted 86 Meralco consumers cut back on power demand, resulting in the de-loading capacity of 262.8 MW.

To this end, the DOE called out the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to do its job. The DOE said that the NGCP should “immediately address the protection coordination of the generation, transmission and distribution systems” and accelerate “the signing and filing with the Energy Regulatory Commission of the ancillary service procurement agreement.” — Ramon Royandoyan