DOE assures enough power supply during dry months

By Kris Crismundo April 22, 2021, 4:51 pm

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1137670

 

MANILA – As power demand peaks during the dry season, the Department of Energy (DOE) does not foresee rotational brownouts as long as there will be no further shutdown of power plants that could substantially impact the Luzon grid.

DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola said in a press briefing Thursday that the current power supply can cater to the peak demand of 11,841 megawatts (MW), which is expected mid-May, even if seven power generation companies are offline from April to June.

Firms that have been on outage since last month are Asia Pacific Energy Corporation, Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan Power Company Ltd, Luzon Hydro Corporation, First Gas Power Corporation, GN Power Mariveles Center Ltd. Co., Petron Corp., and Sem Calaca Power Corporation.

Some of the outage will extend until July and August.

Delola previously said the DOE is already looking into shutdowns that are caused by scheduled maintenance and technical glitches, among others.

“Given these extended outages, what we are seeing in our profile is there is a possibility of yellow alerts during week 15 to week 18. That’s the second week of April and the first week of May. We expect another round of yellow alerts during week 21 to week 25,” he said.

DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said consumers need not worry about yellow alert status as this would not lead to power interruption.

“Huwag tayong mangamba dahil meron pa tayong supisyente na kuryente. Hindi s’ya nagreresulta sa power interruption. Pero ‘pag nag-red alert na po ‘yan, ‘yon ang nagkakaroon ng mga rotating brownout (Let’s not worry because we have sufficient power. It  won’t result in a power interruption. But if it’s a red alert, that’s when we will have rotating brownouts),” he said.

During a yellow alert, the DOE will closely monitor generation companies so that there will be no further power plant outages that may escalate into a red alert.

“Since mababa ‘yung demand, ‘yung projection ng yellow alert hindi rin mangyayari. Ibig sabihin maganda ang sitwasyon natin (Since there is a lower demand, our projection of a yellow alert might not even happen). And it’s already April, so we are almost one-third away from the peak period,” Fuentebella said. (PNA)