MANILA, Philippines — Several areas
in Luzon, including Metro Manila, experienced blackouts yesterday as power
authorities had to rotate the delivery of electricity following a breakdown of
a major power plant.
The Luzon grid was placed on yellow
alert from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., 12 to 1 p.m., 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 9
p.m.
A red alert status was issued in the
power grid at peak hours, or from 11 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
A yellow alert means there are not
enough reserves to cover the largest running generating unit at a given period.
It does not necessarily lead to power outages, however.
On the other hand, a red alert
status means there is insufficient power supply in the grid.
On account of severe power
deficiency in the grid, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP)
implemented manual load dropping (MLD) – or rotational blackout that lasted an
hour – in several areas.
From 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., NGCP said it
implemented MLD in Tarlac City, parts of Pangasinan, La Union, Quezon,
Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur and within the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)
franchise area.
From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., parts of
Baguio City and Benguet, Isabela, San Fernando City in Pampanga, Albay
experienced MLD, the grid operator said.
Meralco, on the other hand, said it
implemented rotational blackouts in parts of Bulacan, Malabon, Navotas,
Caloocan City, Valenzuela, Cavite, Quezon City, Las Piñas and Laguna.
Earlier in the day, the DOE said it
did not expect any power interruption because there was 174.6 MW available
under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) within the Meralco franchise area.
Meralco said under the ILP,
corporations and commercial establishments were ready to use their generator
sets to help prevent or minimize incidents of power outage.
“We are calling on our Interruptible
Load Program partners to participate and de-load from the grid. As of 10 a.m.,
93 of them with a total of 174.64 MW have committed,” the power distributor
said.
The latest plant that bogged down
was the Sual power plant, which has a capacity of 647 MW. The Department of
Energy (DOE) said it went on unplanned outage on April 9 due to “boiler
circulating pump piping leak” and was tentatively scheduled to be back on April
13.
Other plants still on unplanned
outage are: the 150-MW SLPGC 2 due to “vibration in primary air fan” and is
estimated to be back on April 21; 420-MW Pagbilao 3 due to “boiler slagging”
and is expected to be back online on April 16; the 135-MW SLTEC 1 due to
“boiler tube leak” and is estimated to start operating again also on April 13.
The 300-MW Calaca 2 is operating on
derated capacity at 200 MW due to “half condenser operation.”
A total of 2,279 MW were lost in the
grid – 1,452 MW due to the outage of plants and 827 MW from previously approved
outages due to scheduled maintenance.
“Based on latest NGCP figures, this
reduces our available capacity from 12,285 MW to 10,541 MW, which is not enough
to meet today’s requirement of 12,399 MW (peak demand at 10,679 MW and reserve
requirement of 1,720 MW),” the DOE said.
With the latest power trouble,
Murang Kuryente party-list nominee Gerry Arances said the government should
hold accountable generators responsible for outages as supply shortages would
eventually result in higher electricity rates.
“It’s time for DOE and ERC (Energy
Regulatory Commission) to make someone accountable for these outages, which
will surely result to increase in power rates in the coming months. The DOE,
ERC and Meralco are hiding behind complicated figures and rationalizations for
their power outages, while Filipinos keep on suffering,” he said.
The DOE had directed power
generators not to conduct preventive maintenance schedules a week before and
after May 13 to ensure enough supply during the midterm elections. – With
Paolo Romero
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