Nearly 2 million residents hit by power outages — Meralco

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly two million residents in Luzon suffered power interruptions last Saturday due to supply deficiency, electric power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said.

In a statement on Sunday, Meralco said it implemented manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational power interruptions that lasted for an average of 1.5 hours in parts of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Pampanga, Rizal and Quezon province. 

Manual load dropping (MLD) is conducted to limit demand when electricity generation is insufficient or contingency reserve is zero.

“Due to the significant supply deficiency, rotational power interruptions had to be implemented across Luzon, including in Meralco’s service areas, to manage the current system condition,” Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said. 

Meralco said its services were fully restored by 11:47 p.m. on Saturday. 

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on Saturday placed the Luzon grid under red alert, indicating the generated electricity was not enough to meet consumer demand.

The power firm said its commercial and industrial customers de-loaded a collective capacity of more than 200 megawatts on Saturday, helping to mitigate the impact of the red alert that lasted for almost half of the day.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience caused by this challenging situation. We continue to proactively exhaust all demand-side management efforts to help minimize, if not avert, power interruptions,” Zaldarriaga said. 

The Luzon grid is under normal condition on Sunday. According to NGCP’s 10 a.m. update, Luzon grid had an available capacity of 14,276 MW, while its peak demand stood at 10,763 MW.  — Gaea Katreena Cabico