MANILA, Philippines – Amid the scorching heat of summer, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon grid under red alert on Wednesday, April 10.

The red alert status, or the likelihood of power outages in the grid, was raised due to projected low power supply reserves, along with outage and deration of some generators, putting them at below maximum capacity.

The red alert status was raised at 11 am, and will again be enforced 2 pm to 4 pm this Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the yellow alert status was raised at 10 am, from 12 noon to 1 pm, followed by 5 pm, and 7-9 pm.

Luzon grid on yellow alert from 10:00AM, 12:00NN-1:00PM, 5:00PM, and 7:00PM-9:00PM, and red alert from 11:00AM, 2:00PM-4:00PM, 10 April 2019.

Available Capacity – 10,625MW
Peak Demand – 10,313MW

Details on the cause to… https://t.co/f4Sri3LeyW

— NGCP (@NGCP_ALERT) April 10, 2019

The expected peak demand in Luzon is at 10,313 megawatts (MW), while the available capacity is at 10,625 MW, with a reserve of 312 MW.

A total of 827 MW capacity is on planned outage as of writing.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said that distribution utilities, specifically the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), already notified the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants to activate self-generating facilities during the indicated intervals.

Despite the thinning supply reserves, the DOE said that it does not expect any power interruption due to the ILP participants activating their generator sets during the planned outage.

The DOE appealed to consumers to save on energy especially during the summer season. – Rappler.com