Metro Manila brownouts feared amid heat, power supply woes

MANILA, Philippines — Rotating brownouts may hit Metro Manila and other areas if the national government fails to act on the country’s power supply woes, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian warned on Thursday.

Speaking at a Kapihan sa Senado forum, Gatchalian said 47 power plants in the country failed and succumbed to “forced outages,” adding that a total of 21 hydroelectric power plants have also stopped working because river systems, which serve as the source of their power, have dried up.

Asked if rotational brownouts may happen because of these failed power plants, the senator simply said: “Posible yan.” (That’s possible).

“Tinitingnan ko nga itong mga plantang pumapalya at saka yung mga hydro na hindi tumatakbo. Kapag hindi pa tayo gagawa ng cloud seeding o iba pang intervention, talagang makakakita tayo ng rotating brownout. Mas mainit, mas tataas ang demand — mas mainit, mas mataas ang supply (na kailangan)dahil wala nga tayong hydro,” Gatchalian told reporters.

(That’s possible. I am looking at these plants that failed and the hydropower plants that stopped working. If we don’t conduct cloud seeding or other interventions, we will really see rotating brownouts. The higher the temperature is, the higher the demand would be. If it’s hot, the needed supply would increase because we lack hydroelectric power plants.)

Gatchalian said if the government doesn’t address this soon, rotating brownouts would really be a thing — “especially in Metro Manila,” because it is the power “demand center” of the Philippines.

With power supply running low nationwide, the National Grid Corporation on April 24 placed Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao under red and yellow alert status.

Earlier, Gatchalian and fellow senators Risa Hontiveros and Francis Escudero also questioned the “unjustified” power outages and higher power bills in the country, seeking a probe on the issue.