By
Lenie Lectura - April 25, 2019
OVER 1,500 megawatts
(MW) of power generating capacity was shaved off from the Luzon grid on
Wednesday, resulting in rotational brownouts that lasted for one to two hours.
The reasons for the
power outage include high system demand and the forced outage of power plants
damaged by the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Luzon last Monday.
The Department of
Energy (DOE) said a total of 990MW of installed capacity was not supplied by GN
Power Mariveles Coal Power Plant (GMPC) Units 1 and 2 (690MW) and SMC
Consolidated Power Corporation (SCPC) Limay Coal Units 1 and 2 (300MW).
Moreover, Pagbilao Unit
3 of Pagbilao Energy Corporation (PEC) has only declared 133 MW or 32 perccent
of its 420 MW total installed capacity due to an ongoing assessment of the
condition of their boiler.
Two more plants did not
deliver full capacity. Calaca unit 2 and Malaya unit 1 were de-rated by 100MW
and 150MW, respectively.
In all, 1,527MW was not
delivered to the grid.
The power generation
deficiency prompted the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to
declare a red alert in Luzon from 11am to 4pm and from 6-7pm. This is the sixth
red alert notice issued for the month. The NGCP earlier raised the red alert
last April 10, 11, 12, 15, 23 and 24.
At the same time, the
grid operator raised the yellow alert notice from 8am to 10am, 4pm to 6pm and
from 7pm to 11pm.
As such, manual load
drop (MLD) or rotational brownout in Luzon Grid was implemented.
The Manila Electric
Company (Meralco) said households in some parts of Laguna, Quezon, Las Pinas,
Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Makati, Pasig and Rizal experienced power outage.
However, a total of
248.88 MW of power has been committed by ILP (Interruptible Load Program)
participants which will allow the plants to operate their generating sets as
support to the limited power supply.
The DOE also said that
98.5 percent of power has been restored in Pampanga Electric Cooperative II
(PELCO II). The remaining 1.5% covers around 2,300 households in the
municipalities of Guagua, Lubao and Porac.
The electric
cooperative’s facilities were damaged after the earthquake last Monday.
While the rest of Luzon
has already been reenergized, PELCO II is targeting the full restoration
of power in its service area by tomorrow morning.
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