By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated April 12, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Insufficient
supply plagued the Luzon grid again yesterday as several power plants affected
by the earthquakes over the weekend remained offline.
The National Grid Corp. of the
Philippines (NGCP) raised the yellow alert from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
to 3 p.m. as available capacity was only at 10,090 megawatts while peak demand
was projected at 9,328 MW.
The Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco) said power reserves were inadequate because the San Gabriel, San
Lorenzo modules 50 and 60 as well as Avion 2 were not yet operational.
The Ilijan Block B, Pagbilao 2,
Calaca 1 and Pagbilao 1 were also on scheduled forced outage yesterday.
Energy Undersecretary Felix Fuentebella
said the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. started operating
Malaya 1 and 2 to augment supply by 450 MW.
Meralco said 383 MW from
Interruptible Load Program participants are also on standby.
The NGCP said normal power supply in
the Luzon grid could be expected by next week as the operator of Ilijan Block B
committed to supply 600 MW by Monday.
Fuentebella assured the public that
the Department of Energy (DOE) would implement measures to prevent an increase
in power rates in the electricity spot market.
“The DOE is in talks with the Energy
Regulatory Commission and Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) to…monitor
and prevent price spikes brought about by the calamity,” he said.
The PEMC said rates in the spot
market increased by as much as P10 per kilowatt-hour due to the supply
shortage.
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