TOTAL OF 34 POWER PLANTS ARE NOT WORKING, RED AND YELLOW ALERT CONTINUES

High demand on power electricity, red and yellow alert for next week (Photo courtesy of GMA Integrated News)

Due to the ravages of typhoon "Aghon" nine power plants shut down, putting the Luzon Grid under Red Alert status. It is possible that it will continue next week. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), nine of the 23 power plants in Luzon are offline. This is in addition to 11 other plants that are not connected to the grid or are in remote areas.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) assured that no transmission lines have been damaged yet. But the DOE warned that the Red Alerts may continue if the power plants cannot meet the continuous increase in demand for electricity. 

NGCP’s advisory for May 28 Tuesday, red alert will be up in the Luzon grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. The grid will be under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Meanwhile, the Visayas grid will be placed under yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

“If the situation does not improve, if the plants that went offline because of the typhoon do not come back by next week, probably we’ll have a Red Alert also next week,” DOE USec. Rowena Guevara stated.

To meet the country's electricity demand, the DOE is counting on 4,000 megawatts of new plants coming this year from conventional and renewable plants. While everyone is still waiting, the agency is calling on the public to conserve electricity.

DOE Sec. Raphael Lotilla said, “We will be experiencing more and more of this extreme events brough by a climate change, and therefore we all have a responsibility and a power to modify consumption patterns.”

“Following the declaration of Red and Yellow Alerts, Meralco has advised customers enrolled in the Interruptible Load Program (LIP) for their de-loading commitments to help ease the demand in the Luzon grid,” Meralco stated.

Source: GMA Integrated News

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