DoE: Power supply in Phl still sufficient

The Department of Energy announced on Saturday that despite the challenges presented by the recent El Niño phenomenon and ongoing climate change, the country still maintains a sufficient supply of electricity.

In a news forum in Quezon City, DoE assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan assured the public that power shortage is “not a concern as of now.”

“So far, the alert levels have been reduced since last week. The yellow alert was already removed. Since another weekend, we had been dropping the red alert levels until almost past midnight,” he explained.

Marasigan stressed that the power supply nationwide has been “stabilized.”

“Now, we have much on our generation,” he added. 

Marasigan noted that a yellow alert indicates sufficient power supply in the country while a red alert means there are outages in power plants, resulting in insufficient electricity supply “that can’t meet consumer demand.”

He said the previous imposition of red alert “was attributed to the effects of climate change on power plants, particularly the hydro-powered ones.”

He added that affected power plants were not able to fully resume “because the operators had extended their preventive maintenance” due to El Niño or the dry season.

Marasigan noted that the DoE has intensified its monitoring efforts to sustain the electricity demands from the public. 

“We are also establishing dynamic communications with power plant operators and maximizing social platforms to acquire information,” he added.

He noted that there are no impending “manual activations or red alert drops” in the foreseeable future.

Marasigan mentioned that the DoE is proactively gearing up for the impending La Niña phenomenon to preemptively address or minimize potential damage to transmission lines during adverse weather conditions.

In the preceding month, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. urged local governments to make necessary preparations for the onset of the rainy season, affirming the government’s commitment to assisting farmers should the need arise.