Dwindling energy reserves and a spike in demand due to the summer heat may lead to rotating brownouts for Luzon.
On Fri, Apr 15, the Luzon grid was placed on “red alert” status from 1pm to 3pm as peak demand reached an all-time high of 9,746 megawatts.
“A red alert status is raised when there is severe power deficiency. Both Visayas and Mindanao grids are also on red alert. The Department of Energy (DOE) said it is alarmed with the power situation as demand is draining reserves and pushing power plants to its limits,” explains ABS-CBN News.
For its part, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) continues to call for observance of energy efficiency, such as “taking advantage of natural light during the day and turning off appliances, especially those with standby mode capability.”
In an interview with ANC on Fri morning, Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga explained, “Just in case this will go down further, as far as the reserves are concerned, we have to implement the Interruptible Load Program. we have around over 500 megawatts of deloading capability for today, so we’re hoping that this would be enough but we’re taking the situation on an hourly basis.”
Meralco added that “customers might experience one to three hours of rotating brownouts if reserves continue to stay between 100MW and 300MW.”
