The Manila Electric Company on Saturday called on the public to practice energy efficiency. It again asked large-load customers under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to be on standby for possible de-loading in case the situation escalated to Red Alert.
"We urge the public to continue practicing energy efficiency to help manage the demand," Meralco spokesperson and head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said.
Zaldarriaga made the call as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon Grid under a "yellow alert" status as some of its power plants have been on forced outage and running on derated capacities.
"We are monitoring the situation 24/7 and will provide updates as needed," he added.
Yesterday, May 31, despite the declaration of Red Alert, Meralco did not resort to any manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational power interruptions due to the overall improvement in the supply situation.
In an advisory, the NGCP said the yellow alert would be implemented from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., indicating that the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid's contingency requirement.
The grid's available capacity is at 13,497 megawatts (MW), but the peak demand will reach 12,278 MW.
"Two plants have been on forced outage since 2023, 3 between January and March 2024, and 13 power plants between April and May 2024; while eight are running on derated capacities, for a total of 3,482.3MW unavailable to the grid," the NGCP said.
The agency also cited other factors that placed Luzon's power transmission under yellow alert:
Deration of Sual 1 from 647MW to 300MW
Forced outage of the following plants: Kalayaan 1 (180MW), 3 (180MW), Angat Main (200MW), QPPL (460MW), Pagbilao 1 (382MW), and 2 (382MW)
The grid operator, however, assured the public that the Visayas and Mindanao grids were operating under normal conditions. —Vince Angelo Ferreras/KG, GMA Integrated News
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