There’ll be power, DOE assures folks

There will be no blackouts in voting and canvassing centers today, the Department of Energy (DOE) and affiliated agencies assured the public, citing enough energy reserves to serve electricity demand to the elections.

“We have a very comfortable reserve level for the elections because it is a non-working holiday so demand should be low,” Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said.

“In case there are incidents, such as unforeseen power plant outages, there may be outages in households but we assure power for polling centers and canvassing centers,” Monsada said, citing assurances made by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Gross power reserves for Luzon were estimated to reach 2,710 megawatts (MW), for the Visayas 209 MW, and for Mindanao 235 MW, according to NGCP data. “All grids have reserves above all the required levels,” Monsada said,

Monsada said Luzon could export up to 180 MW of power to the Visayas if needed. Peak demand for Mindanao may reach 1,363 MW.

Command center

The energy family, which includes the DOE and its line agencies, together with the NGCP, the National Transmission Corp., National Power Corp. and Meralco, activated their joint command center at the NGCP head office in Quezon City at noon on Sunday.

Besides having personnel stationed at the power monitoring command center at the NGCP headquarters, Meralco said it had its own 24-hour monitoring center activated for the polling precincts and canvassing stations located within Meralco’s franchise in Metro Manila and surrounding areas.

Meralco technical assistance engineer Melvin Paulino said the distribution utility dedicated the hotline 6328118 for polling centers and canvassing centers to report power supply-related incidents.

Concerns related to households and facilities not related to the polls may be called to the regular hotline 16211 power services. Feedback via text may be sent to numbers 0920-9716211 (Smart network), 0917-55116211 (Globe), and 0925-7716211 (Sun).

Call over concerns

Monsada said the DOE and allied firms would also closely watch the days immediately after elections since these would be regular working days. She said DOE has dedicated the hotlines 09983-816167 (Smart) and 0917-5414917 (Globe) for power concerns during and after the elections.

The NGCP said concerns on transmission facilities, such as suspicious activities around towers, may be reported to the hotlines 0917-8476427 or 0917-TIP-NGCP (Globe) and 0918-8476427 or 0918-TIP-NGCP (Smart).

In case of power interruption, the grid operator said it would be ready to deploy its strategically placed aircraft, emergency restoration structures, and spare parts for quick line inspection and restoration.

The NGCP said it had activated its own regional and district offices 24/7 from Sunday until Tuesday, and for eight hours on Wednesday and Thursday.