The Department of Energy (DOE) has assured the public that it is doing its best to avoid or at least minimize the power interruptions in the country, after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the entire Luzon in Yellow alert status on Saturday, meaning, the power supply was thin and inadequate.
The NGCP said the Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday because the available capacity at 7 p.m. is at 12,048 megawatts, while peak demand is at 11,426 megawatts.
Further, it said that 22 power plants are on forced outage while another one is running on derated capacity or the power rating was reduced.
The Yellow alert status means a total of 2,325.8 megawatts of electricity is unavailable to the Luzon grid.
"A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid's contingency requirement," the NGCP said.
Despite this, the Manila Electric Company, also on Saturday, said no scheduled rotational power interruption to happen.
"We are closely monitoring the situation as NGCP placed the Luzon grid on Yellow Alert on Saturday. We are ready to activate the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) should there be a need. We also continue to urge the public to continue practicing energy conservation and efficiency measures to help manage the overall demand," Meralco said in a statement on Saturday.
The DOE and the Energy Regulatory Commission both said that they are now investigating the cause of the 22 power plants' forced power outage.
"We want to assure that the power plants have been reminded and aware of their duties and obligations to the entire grid system," Energy Secretary Rafael Lotilla said.
It was the fifth day that the country's grid experienced a thin supply of power.
Power supply conditions have remained tight since Tuesday, 16 April, resulting in the issuance of Red and Yellow Alerts in the Luzon grid and Yellow Alerts in the Visayas grid.
Red and Yellow Alerts need not result in actual power interruptions if the power demand can be correspondingly reduced to respond to the decrease in power supply, Lotilla stressed.