Power woes raise alert in Luzon, Visayas grids
“This is partly due to the help of our big-load customers, which collectively deloaded around 300 MW under the interruptible load program (ILP),” Meralco said in a statement.ILP is a voluntary, demand-side management program of the Energy Regulatory Commission wherein big Meralco customers are requested to use their own generator sets instead of relying on electricity from the grid.
This helps prevent power outages in households during red alert situations.
When all companies in the ILP use their generators, more than 600 MW can be made available to the Luzon grid for use by small consumers.
However, NGCP said it implemented an emergency MLD or rotational power interruptions affecting portions of northern Luzon which was first implemented at 4:16 p.m. “to protect the integrity of the power system.”
Affected were the electric cooperatives in Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Nueva Ecija and Aurora.
Additional supply
A few weeks earlier, the DOE had assured the public of ample power supply for April, saying some power plants with a combined capacity of 300 MW would add to the grid.
Energy Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan had said that certain coal, solar, biomass and hydropower plants, mostly located in Luzon, as well as Unit 1 of the Mariveles coal-fired power plant in Bataan province would be switched on during the period.
He added that several hydropower facilities with a combined capacity of around 20 MW, a 29-MW geothermal (binary) project and solar power plants with total capacities of about 104 MW would start operating. INQ RED, YELLOW EXPLAINED According to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, a red alert is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand, while a yellow alert means the operating margin or excess capacity of operating plants is not enough to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. —Photo from NGCP’s Facebook page
