Brownouts hit Bulacan, Cavite despite DOE assurance

(Updated 3:55 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines–Parts of Bulacan and Cavite on Wednesday suffered brownouts despite an assurance from the Department of Energy (DOE) that there might be no need for rotational service interruptions as demand exceeded electricity supply in the Luzon grid.

According to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), manual load dropping (MLD) started at 1:14 pm, with brownouts experienced in portions of Malolos, Plaridel, Bustos, and Guiguinto in Bulacan as well as Tagaytay, Alfonso, Indang, Maragondon, Mendez in Cavite.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines on Wednesday said it might implement manual load dropping, or rotational supply interruption, that would affect the service areas of Meralco as well as those of distributors that serve Abra, parts of Bataan, Tarlac City, Quezon province and Camarines Sur.

The red alert notice, which means the projected demand exceeds available power generating capacity by more than 200 megawatts (MV), was issued for the 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. as well as 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. time intervals.

Also, a yellow alert — projected demand leaves reserve generation capacity at less than 647 MW — was issued for the intervals 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.; 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Power plants that represent a total of 827 MW in capacity were on planned outage on April 10.

“(We do) not expect any power interruption because there are 174.6 MW available under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) within the Meralco franchise area,” the DOE said in a statement.

Companies that participate in the ILP voluntarily rely on their own stand-by power generators instead of the distribution utility at particular hours of the day when supply in the grid is not enough. /jpv