Red, yellow alerts in Luzon grid possible in coming weeks — DOE

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MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday warned of possible red and yellow alerts in Luzon in the coming weeks with several power plants scheduled to undergo preventive maintenance.

“We can see that there are probable red alerts that we will encounter starting this week, which is week 24,” Dir. Mario Marasigan of the DOE’s Energy Power Industry Management Bureau told a Senate energy committee hearing.

Marasigan, however, said that red alerts do not necessarily equate brownouts in the grid.

“To fully explain bakit may potential na red and yellow alerts in the coming weeks up to the end of the year, meron po kaming nakuhang data from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, mahaba-haba po yung ating potential na yellow alerts at meron po tayong mga specific weeks na may potential na red alerts,” he added.

(To explain why there would be potential red and yellow alerts in the coming weeks up to the end of the year, we obtained a data from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, potential yellow alerts could be longer and we have specific weeks when there will be potential red alerts.)

“Kapag sumobra sa dalawa yung naka-outage, definitely may problema tayo sa supply [If more than two plants have outages, we will definitely have problem with the supply],” he explained.

According to Marasigan the Ilijan Block A plant will undergo its preventive maintenance on June 24.

In the coming weeks up to the 30th week of the year, the DOE official said the GNPower Mariveles Unit 1 coal-fired plant, the Sual Unit 1 and the Pagbilao power plant will also simultaneously be on preventive maintenance.

“Having these numerous plants conducting their preventive maintenance in the forthcoming weeks, then definitely po meron tayong potential na magkaroon ng hindi lang yellow alert but red alert [we will definitely have yellow as well as red alerts],” he added.

Being under yellow alert means that there is low electricity supply, red alert means there are zero ancillary services or insufficient power supply in the grid.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, head of the Senate energy panel, then asked the DOE if brownouts are expected in the coming weeks.

In response, Marasigan said the DOE is enforcing measures to prevent rotational brownouts from happening.

Among these measures include the Interruptible Load Program, he added.

Further, he said the DOE has been calling on different agencies to continue their energy management program, which seeks to reduce by at least 10 percent the utility consumption of government offices, including power.

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