MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Energy urged Filipinos to minimize the use of high-energy consuming devices, such as air conditioners and elevators, during peak hours, as the state grid operator was forced to implement outages amid energy supply’s inability to keep up with the demand.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on Tuesday, April 16, issued a red alert notice for the Luzon grid from 2 pm to 9 pm, as 19 power plants were forced to shut down. This was extended to 11 pm due to two more plant outages.

A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement. Rotational brownouts were intentionally done Tuesday to protect the integrity of the power system.

The Visayas grid was initially put on a lower level, the yellow alert status, from 2 pm to 7 pm. But this was eventually raised to red alert from 5 pm to 9 pm due to thin supply.

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Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said energy efficiency efforts can be conducted during this period of extreme heat.

“Flexible work arrangements and other conservation measures would also be helpful. The extremely high temperatures have been affecting the operations of power plants in the grid,” Lotilla said.

The Manila Electric Company said the interruptible load program helped mitigate the power strain on the grid and partially helped avoid some rotational brownouts on Tuesday.

This program compensates companies that use their own generating facilities during times of power supply deficit. – Rappler.com