DOE monitors low power reserves

By Alena Mae S. Flores – December 6, 2022, 7:00 pm
from manilastandard.net

The Department of Energy on Tuesday assured there is enough power supply, but said it is closely looking at power demand which has been eating into the reserves.

Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said Tuesday the Luzon grid was on yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. A yellow alert is placed over the grid when reserves fall below ideal levels.

Available capacity was at 11,522 megawatts, compared to the peak demand  of 10,612MW.

“Four power plants are on forced outage, while three others are running on derated capacities, for a total of 2,145MW unavailable to the grid,” NGCP said.

Energy Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan said the yellow alert was an extended situation. “We are monitoring demand, but we have sufficient supply. Our reserves are low,” he said.

“Demand has been increasing, and it has been eating into our energy market and actual reserves,” Marasigan said. He said there no issue on fuel availability.

Marasigan said power plants on forced outage suffered from technical problems.

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla is wooing investors to the country’s power sector.