The Cordillera and the rest of Luzon have experienced power interruptions starting June 1 and which may be experienced until June 7 except weekends due to limited power supply over the past months.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) which is in charge of power transmission issued a red alert status and provided an outlook of the situation for areas covered by the Luzon grid in a press briefing called on June 1 after power generation tripped and caused interruptions when several power plants made emergency shutdowns since last weekend up to night of May 31.
NGCP has so far issued advisories for parts of Baguio City and Benguet last June 1 and 2 that it implemented manual load dropping to maintain the integrity of the power system. These schedules may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections.
Reynaldo Abadilla, NGCP Luzon systems operations head, said they expect electricity supply to normalize by June 8 but it would depend on whether the power plants that went on emergency shutdown are able to fix the problem.
“We have been experiencing high demand for the past weeks but then manipis na ang reserba to the point nagti-trip that is why we could go on yellow alert or red alert status until the problems of the power plants are addressed,” Abadilla said.
A red alert status means the power generation capacity is thin and therefore not enough to supply the demand, resulting in manual load dropping or forced outages in some covered areas.
Due to the situation, NGCP has no choice but to implement manual load dropping in coordination with distribution utilities.
Lawyer Cynthia Alabanza, NGCP spokesperson and public relations head, clarified the situation is unplanned and NGCP also had no notice of these emergency shutdowns from the grid, but as soon as they got notice that this happened, they sent notices beginning June 1.
“We had no notice of this because this is unplanned. We don’t have control over power plants because we just transmit power to distribution utilities, which deliver to consumers. As we have not been given firm commitment when they will return, we are now announcing these projections, assuming these plants remain out for the next days, for the public to be able to make preparations,” Alabanza said. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
