THE Luzon grid experienced rotational power outage on Tuesday—the second consecutive day of brownouts—and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) warned that this would continue in the days to come if the power plants that are on shutdown do not switch on soon as scheduled.
“We foresee red alert status in the next few days until Monday [June 7] because of thinning power supply. We see red alert coming in tomorrow [June 2],
Thursday until Friday. We will have a normal network for the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) because demand is low but coming Monday (June 7) we see a red alert status.
We are asking everyone to put it on notice so they can make preparations,” NGCP spokesperson Atty. Cynthia Alabanza said at a virtual news briefing.
The NGCP warning of more outages came as the Senate Energy committee head Sherwin Gatchalian vowed to open an inquiry.
Ironically, several senators who were attending the Senate plenary virtually were cut off briefly from their colleagues at the session hall after outages struck their homes on Tuesday.
Gatchalian said in a radio interview the recurring problem of outages, despite the Department of Energy’s repeated assurances of sufficient capacity, should have long been resolved if red tape had not deterred investors who were willing to set up power plants.
Unplanned outage
Luzon was placed on red alert from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
The issuance of the red alert was triggered by the unplanned outage of GNPower Mariveles Energy Center (GMEC) Unit 2 coal power plant, the prolonged plant shutdown of major power facilities and the reduction of power plant capacities. These resulted in a deficit of 185 megawatts (MW) as available supply stood at 11,408 MW while demand was projected to peak at 11,593 MW.
GMEC 2 (316 MW) has been declared unavailable due to a suspected boiler tube leak. The plant is expected to be back online on June 8.
A total of 4,064 MW was shaved off from the grid. Of which, 435 MW was from the planned outage of the San Roque hydro plant; 1,792 MW from the forced outage and extended planned outage of power plants including Sual, GMEC Unit 1 and Sem Calaca; and 1,837 MW from power plant derating. Ilijan’s capacity was reduced to 716 MW due to ongoing Malampaya gas restriction from 835 MW in the previous week.
Alabanza said the NGCP has no control over the power plants’ outages, be it planned or unplanned. “We will just be advised if they will be on shutdown. We are also dependent on the information provided by the power plants. We are reporting this to the DOE because this has impact on the power rates,” she said.
To maintain a balanced system, NGCP on Tuesday implemented Manual Load Dropping (MLD) in parts of Luzon—Isabela, Ifugao, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Bataan, Batangas, Camarines Sur and some parts of Metro Manila.
The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said customers in parts of Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Rizal, Metro Manila, Cavite could experience brownouts.
The DOE said separately it continues to monitor the power situation and will submit the additional information for the consumers and the enforcement agencies, including the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Philippine Competition Commission and the Department of Justice, considering its long-term strategy of addressing the power supply and demand situation in summer.
It reminded distribution utilities and the system operator of its contracting obligations to address the needed capacity increases for a reliable power system for its consumers.
“While the [DOE] is working towards resolving these persistent issues, it is not something that could be accomplished overnight,” it said.
The DOE also asked ERC to look into these outages and exercise its regulatory functions.
“We are also monitoring the situation. We are definitely looking into these outages and will take the necessary actions in accordance with existing laws and rules on this matter,” said ERC commissioner Rexie Digal.
Senate inquiry
Senators are poised to dig deeper into reports of looming brownouts due to inadequate power supply in the midst of a sizzling summer season.
Senator Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, he shared consumers’ dismay over reports that more power outages are expected amid rising demand for electricity as temperatures sizzle.
Recalling that energy officials earlier assured steady supply, Gatchalian griped he was “dismayed by the news because before the onset of summer, we conducted a Senate hearing where [DOE] officials gave an assurance there will be no brownouts during summer.”
He said they had sought the assurance there will be no brownouts as the biggest delivery of Covid vaccines will arrive in June.
“If there is no electricity, there is no refrigerator. And without refrigerator, the vaccine will [be rendered unusable],” Gatchalian said, partly in Filipino.
The lawmaker lamented this was “not acceptable because they gave us an assurance and they should stand by it until the end.”
He, however, clarified that what the Senate commitee is looking for is “not who is to blame, but a solution,” saying senators are ready to help the agency concerned to find a solution to ensure steady supply of electricity.
Gatchalian said the simple solution is to increase the supply by encouraging investors to put up additional power plants. “Many investors want to come in. But because of red tape, our process is too long, and they have a hard time. There are many solutions, and one of them is for us to make it easy for those willing to set up new plants.” He said at least two laws are in place that should deter red tape: the One Stop Shop and the Ease of Doing Business.
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