Yellow Alerts on Luzon Grid to Persist Until Early September

On Thursday, the Department of Energy (DOE) cautioned residents of Luzon of the limited power supply which may lead to rotating blackouts once again. Beginning next week, projected demand is expected to overshadow supply by a large margin to be followed by two weeks of thin power reserves.

“Mahaba-haba po ‘yung ating potential na yellow alerts at meron po tayong mga specific weeks ng potential red alerts… Meron pa rin tayong power plants na magco-conduct ng kanilang PMS (preventive maintenance schedule) during the summer season,” said Energy Director Mario Marasigan at the Senate energy committee. “Kapag sumobra sa dalawa ang naka-outage, definitely may problema tayo sa supply,” he added.

(“We will experience a longer period of potential yellow alerts and specific weeks of potential red alerts… It’s because there are still some power plants that will conduct their PMS during the summer season. When there are more than two plants on an outage, definitely we will have supply problems.”)

Peak demand will usually reach 11,000 megawatts (MW) during the afternoons, which is still manageable for the Luzon grid’s 17,266 MW capacity. The problem lies in power plants going offline, effectively diminishing supply.

Undersecretary Emmanuel Juaneza said that the DOE is already engaged in discussions with generating firms regarding maintenance activities beyond June in an effort to preserve Luzon’s power supply.

There will be a shortage of supply on July 12-18 and July 25-August 1 as two generating firms are expected to go offline during these periods. As a result, the grid will continue to be under yellow alert throughout the duration. This could potentially last until early September.

Source: CNN PH