Red alerts likely to persist next week, says DOE official

MANILA, Philippines — Red alerts may persist next week in Luzon if several power plants remain unavailable to meet the increasing demand for electricity, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Monday.

“If the situation does not improve, if the plants that went offline because of the typhoon do not come back by next week probably we’ll have a red alert also next week,” Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said in a virtual briefing.

National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), which operates the country’s transmission backbone, placed Luzon under red and yellow alerts today, May 27, as a total of 23 power plants are either offline or reduced their output.

In an advisory, NGCP said a red alert is hoisted in the Luzon grid from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Before this, a yellow alert was up from noon to 1 p.m. Yellow alert will also be up from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Power plants down due to Typhoon Aghon

A red alert, according to NGCP, means the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the regulatory requirements of the transmission grid. This might lead to power interruptions.

READ: Grids on constant red, yellow alerts show need for increased capacity — solon

A yellow alert means the operating margin is not enough to meet the contingency requirement of the transmission grid.

Guevara said a total of 34 power power plants are offline as of writing. Of these, nine power plants connected to the power grid are down due to Typhoon Aghon (international name: Ewiniar) along with 11 power plants not connected to the grid or those located in remote areas.

Fourteen other power facilities have been unavailable even before the onslaught of the typhoon.

Guevara said that for the remainder of this year, 4,000 megawatts of new power plants will come in equally divided between conventional and renewable plants, more than enough to meet the country’s increasing energy needs.