No ‘red alerts’ expected in summer months, says DOE

There are “only potential yellow alerts” in May and no red alerts in the summer months, thanks to measures that include the interruptible load program where companies voluntarily and temporarily turn to their own generators for electricity supply, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

But National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), operator of the country’s power transmission network, reiterated its appeal for the government to have a reliable strategy in ensuring that the system would not bog down.

“The DOE has been actively working with the entire energy family since November last year for all the necessary preparations, as well as the development of harmonized solutions to make sure that there will be adequate power supply all year round,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said in a statement.

At a briefing held on Friday, energy officials said daily electricity demand for 2020 was projected to peak at 12,285 megawatts for Luzon; 2,519 MW for Visayas and 2,278 MW for Mindanao.

They insisted that there was “enough power generation capacity at present.”

“When we took into account the contribution of new power plants and [other measures], there were no more red alerts in our projection, only potential yellow alerts,” said Mario Marasigan, director of the Electric Power Industry Management Bureau.

One of the measures that the DOE banks on for such a scenario is the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) that gives distribution utilities the option to engage with their high-load customers to voluntarily reduce their demand and/or use their respective back-up generator sets, to help ease demand on the grid.

The ILP is engaged when the grid operator—NGCP—declares a red alert status, which is done when demand exceeds available generation capacity.

In a separate statement, NGCP repeated that there was a “need for a comprehensive, far reaching power development plan that considers generation technology, facility location and dispatch hierarchy.”

The NGCP itself is hard pressed to find ancillary services—power supply needed to run the grid as opposed to electricity that is delivered to consumers—when supply is thin.

“NGCP is strictly prohibited by law from building its own power plants, and it is entirely dependent on the generating capacities that are installed in the Philippine Grid,” the company said.