Luzon grid plunged into rotating brownouts

By Myrna M. Velasco – May 31, 2021, 2:06 PM
from Manila Bulletin

As Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has his attention on the sizzling political tension at the administration’s political party PDP-Laban, the power grid of Luzon grid made its own scene as it plunged Filipino consumers into brownouts while they are being inconvenienced with extremely hot summer weather.

According to Manila Electric Company (Meralco), the brownouts started in its franchise area at 1:31pm; while the DOE also noted power outages in various parts of Luzon that happened as early as 1:00pm.

In a press briefing, Undersecretary Felix Wiliam B. Fuentebella of the Department of Energy (DOE) indicated that the rolling power outages had been enforced on rotation that ranges from one hour or less (a duration of 15 to 30 minutes) per area, depending on how power supply is beefed up in the system.

As of press time, the areas that had been affected with rotating brownouts include the entire province of Quirino; parts of Isabela, Quezon, Camarines Sur, Olongapo City and the service areas of Meralco in Caloocan, Manila, Paranaque, Pasay, Pasig, Taguig and Quezon City; the towns of Angono, Binangonan, Cainta and Taytay in Rizal province, several areas in Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna.

The ‘red alert’ state for the biggest power grid of the country has been raised by system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) from 1:00pm to 3:00pm or the peak hours of demand in the afternoon of Monday (May 31); while a ‘yellow alert’ status in the grid had also been declared from 10:00am to 1:00pm; and then from 3:01pm to 4:00pm.

It was further reported that the unit 1 of Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation had been de-rated to 150MW (from 300MW); and the Ilijan gas plant had limited generation to 716 (instead of 1,200MW) – and that led to combined supply reduction of 489MW.

The sudden descent of Luzon grid into red alert and subsequent brownouts essentially thwarted the earlier forecasts of the DOE that the country’s power supply will no longer be severely strained; and energy officials have emphasized that ‘red alert’ was no longer a possibility in the grid.

Red alerts or severe scarcity of reserves in Luzon grid had been initially anticipated, but the energy department earlier apprised media that such level of severity in supply may longer be breached because they have not been anticipating demand to rise at the projected peak demand of 11,480 megawatts.

Following sudden twist of events on Monday (May 31), DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola has stated that “we are okay on the demand as per forecast,” but he said, it was the availability of power in the system that had gone off track.

“What we are looking at now is the sudden drop in the available capacity,” he stressed, emphasizing that there had been delays in the resumption of some plants that had done their maintenance downtimes.

In particular, it was pointed out that the generating unit 2 of Sual with 647MW capacity was supposed to be back by the second week of May, but this has been extended until the third week or fourth week of June.

DOE Director Mario C. Marasigan noted that the available capacity had been at 11,729MW; and there was just a difference of 200MW vis-à-vis demand, hence, that necessitated the declaration of red alert earlier in the day. But when the load dropping or rotating brownouts happened, power reserves already dropped to zero or negative levels.

As of 1:40pm, Marasigan cited that the interruptible load program (ILP) participants of Meralco had already increased from 27MW to 168MW; hence, that partly provided a relief in the system.

Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communication Joe Zaldarriaga said “we continue to work with the rest of the energy sector as we closely monitor the power supply situation.”

He qualified that with the supply situation that turned worse, “we have made the necessary preparations including the possible resumption of ILP, though we understand certain limitations given that many of our customers are on reduced operations.

Zaldarriaga added that on the distribution side, “we assure our customers that as long as supply is adequate then there will be no issue in so far as our system capability is concerned.”