Marcos to DOE: Monitor power situation in Luzon

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has tasked the Department of Energy to closely monitor and manage the power supply situation in Luzon after the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) raised red and yellow alerts in various parts of the area.

"In light of the recent Red and Yellow Alerts in the Luzon Grid, I have instructed the Department of Energy to closely monitor and coordinate with all stakeholders to address the situation," Marcos wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

The red alert declaration means that the power supply all over Luzon would be incapable of meeting the consumer demand after 19 power plants went on forced outages,.

The Yellow Alert is issued when the scheduled or unscheduled Operating Margin will not be available to meet the Regulating Body requirements or some part of the Contingency Requirement of the Transmission Grid.

Marcos Jr. directed all government offices, without exception, to take the lead in the conservation of energy and keeping power consumption to a minimum.

This proactive approach aims to alleviate the strain on the grid and mitigate the risk of further disruptions.

"At this time, it is crucial that we all work together to ensure a stable power supply for the next couple of days. Let's adopt energy-efficient practices and stand together to overcome this challenge," Marcos said.

The NGCP said that the Luzon grid would be on red alert, where rotational brownouts would be in place, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

On the other hand, there is a yellow alert from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The most energy that the Luzon grid can handle in a day is 13,024 MW, but it can only handle 13,537 MW.

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said it had told participants in its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) that there might be a de-loading during the yellow and red alert state.