Luzon on red alert due to power supply deficiency

MANILA, Philippines – Power has already been restored in 84% of the National Capital Region, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said Friday, July 18.

DOE also maintains its previous announcement that 100% of Metro Manila will be fully energized by 10 pm of Friday.  

If main lines are not energized by Saturday, July 19, affected residents may have to wait until Tuesday, July 22, Petilla said.

“As of 7 am (Friday, July 18), we did say 84% of Metro Manila have electricity, (and these) are Meralco (Manila Electric Company) franchise areas,” Petilla said.

However, Luzon was placed on red alert Friday, July 18, due to supply deficiency despite concerted efforts to fully restore power in affected areas ravaged by Typhoon Glenda (Rammasun).

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said that as of 2 pm Friday, July 18, Luzon’s actual capacity of 4,745 megawatts (MW) was not enough to supply the grid’s demand of 5,978 MW.

When there is insufficient power supply, the NGCP issues a red alert.

The supply deficiency can be traced to the lack of power that should be transmitted by the NGCP to the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives.

A number of NGCP transmission lines and towers were severely damaged by Glenda.

A number of power plants in Luzon are offline because some are on scheduled shutdown, while some were affected by Glenda.

These were the 1,200 MW Ilijan, 460 MW Quezon Power, and 764 MW Pagbilao. The 1,500 MW Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo power plants were affected by the typhoon, Petilla said.

Among the power plants in Luzon that went offline, only the Ilijan power plant in Batangas resumed operations. At least 36 transmission lines and facilities are still down, Petilla said.

Rotating brownouts

Meanwhile, around 75% of its areas have already been energized following restoration efforts in the aftermath of Glenda, Meralco reported.

About 96% of its affected facilities are also expected to have power restored Friday, July 18, Meralco said.

There may still be isolated cases, though, where a number of households may still experience power outage as Meralco is implementing manual load dropping (MLD) or rotating brownouts as a result of insufficient supply.

The distribution utility (DU) said that these rotating brownouts, which started at around 8 am, will last from 4 to 5 hours. The first batch that was affected included portions of Manila, Quezon City, Bulacan, Cavite, Las Piñas, Batangas, and Laguna.

The rotating brownouts, which are tentatively scheduled until midnight of July 19, will likewise affect practically all the other areas within the Meralco franchise.

Meralco serves 31 cities and 80 municipalities including Metro Manila, the entire provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, and Cavite; parts of the provinces of Laguna, Quezon, Batangas, and Pampanga. – Rappler.com