Luzon power supply tight till Wednesday – NGCP

Rappler.com

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The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines says Luzon is on 'yellow alert' but a power blackout 'is not imminent'

MANILA, Philippines – The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said on Tuesday, April 15, that power supply in the Luzon grid will remain on “yellow alert” or in tight supply until Wednesday due to a glitch in a power plant.

NGCP spokesperson Cynthia D Perez-Alabanza said Unit 2 of the Masinloc coal-fired power plant suffered a glitch early Tuesday but gave an assurance that this would not lead to a “blackout.”

“Tomorrow (Wednesday) is still yellow alert, meaning power supply is tight. The supply is thinner than desired. Power blackout, however, is not imminent,” Alabanza said.

Luzon was placed under yellow alert  – which means there is a “thin” power reserve or less than 600 megawatts (MW) – starting Tuesday.

Watch this report below.

 

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla also confirmed the emergency shutdown of the Masinloc power plant due to a “broiler tube leak” in Unit 2 with a generating capacity of 300 MW, but said there was no cause for panic.

“I would not want to cause any panic at this point. We’re monitoring it and we’re making sure that we remain, at the most, on Yellow alert and inventorying all the resources that we have and make sure that they come back right away,” said Petilla.

He said the Masinloc plant “was out last week and went online yesterday then went down again today” and that the power plant is expected to be back onstream in the next few days.

The energy chief also said in an interview with ANC that the Pagbilao power plant, Unit 2 of which is scheduled to be on forced outage until April 17, will be back online Wednesday morning, at the earliest, to help ease the tight supply.

“We’re trying to get Pagbilao back online tomorrow….It’s scheduled to come back tomorrow morning at the earliest and Thursday evening at the latest,” Petilla said.

He said the DOE is trying to get confirmation that Malampaya will be on a 24-hour shutdown, which means that “by Thursday or Wednesday evening, we will be losing another 600 MW.”

Petilla said, however, that there is usually less power consumption during the holidays as many families are out of town, as in the case this Holy Week.

“Normally, we’d be hitting 8000 MW in Luzon but during holidays it goes down to 6000, sometimes even less,” he said.

Power supply is usually tight during summer months as demand for electricity is higher than supply. There are also many power plants scheduled for maintenance and repairs during this time.

Other power plants that are on forced outage include the 326-MW Unit 1 of GNPower; Unit 2 and 6 of Limay, with a capacity of 70 MW each;  and Unit 2 of Calaca, with a generating capacity of 300 MW. – Rappler.com

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