MANILA, Philippines?Five large power plants in Luzon will soon be shut down for some repair and maintenance checks, according to documents from National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

These power facilities are the 1,200 megawatt (MW) Ilijan natural gas-fired power plant in Batangas; 460-MW coal- fired facility of Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. Co.; 1,000-MW Sta. Rita natural gas facility; 600-MW Calaca coal-fired plant and the 700-MW Pagbilao coal facility.

These maintenance shutdowns scheduled until May are now being coordinated by the NGCP to ensure that no two facilities would be offline at the same time.

This is to prevent a repeat of the rotating power interruptions last Jan. 25, which was caused by the breakdown of a generation unit at the Sual power plant.

Other power plants could not make up for the loss of power from Sual because some were undergoing maintenance work.

Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes earlier appealed to power generation companies to coordinate their maintenance schedules with the NGCP to avoid interruptions, particularly during the May elections.

?What we just want is for the maintenance shutdowns to be properly scheduled, and not done when they just want to, and that scheduled maintenance is also properly executed to assure there are no breakdowns of plants. It?s a matter of proper scheduling and coordination and transparency and regard for public interest,? Reyes explained.

The unscheduled shutdowns, fuel constraints on some power facilities and the El Niño weather disturbance have put a strain on the power supply of the Luzon grid.

As of Feb. 6, the Luzon grid had a gross reserve of 584 MW, while Mindanao has a slim 16-MW reserve. Visayas however, has a reserve deficit of about 125 MW. Luzon should have a power reserve of about 1,200 MW, according to NGCP.