Thin power reserves, but not brownouts this summer: DOE

By Lenie Lectura – April 3, 20253 minute read
from Business Mirror

POWER supply disruptions are unlikely to happen this summer but the possibility of thin power reserves may occur, an official of the Department of Energy (DOE) said.

“In our simulations, we don’t rule out the chance that we will have yellow alerts, but we just want to say that when there is a yellow alert, there will be no immediate brownouts, there will only be a depletion of reserves,” said DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan said.

A yellow alert is issued by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

For now, there is sufficient supply to meet the demand. Marasigan said the DOE is in close coordination with the power industry stakeholders in preparation for the midterm elections in May and for the summer months when demand is at its peak.

“Currently, the electricity supply is sufficient and we do not expect any shortage in our electricity service provision. The DOE continues with simulations to address the situation especially as summer begins,” added Marasigan.

The rosy outlook may change once power plants  suddenly conk out. “We are okay so far. We are also monitoring the Pagasa heat index,” said DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara.

Except for hydro power plants, the DOE said there are no scheduled maintenance shutdown of other power plants this summer.

“We are very happy that the tank one of EERI  (Excellent Energy Resources Inc.)  and SPPC (South Premiere Power Corporation),  has been successfully installed. We were told that by the middle of May, instead of the 1,350 megawatts [MW] we have from those two plants now, we will reach 2,500 megawatts so we’ll be fine this summer.

“We are just hoping that other plants will not have outages, and that was…why we have to delay the plant shutdown of EERI and SPPC…because Sual went down two weeks ago,” said Guevara.

EERI and SPPC earlier conducted a shutdown to facilitate mechanical activities at the gas terminal of Linseed Field Corporation (LFC), a crucial step towards completing its first onshore LNG storage tank by the end of April this year.

“The shutdown is part of the preparations for summer and election supply,” Marasigan pointed out.

The Manila Electric Company, for its part, assured its customers of its readiness to continue delivering stable and reliable electricity service.

“We are actively coordinating with the DOE and other industry stakeholders to ensure readiness to meet the higher demand we anticipate in the coming months, which coincides with the country’s midterm elections,” Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said.

The distribution utility has been ramping up its maintenance and upgrading activities to make sure its distribution network and facilities are in good condition.

As early as last year, Meralco proactively worked on securing additional supply to meet the demand of its customers. In January, Meralco entered into an emergency power supply agreement for 200 megawatt (MW) capacity to augment baseload supply for the critical dry months and lessen the exposure of customers to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, where prices are known to be highly volatile.

To help with demand-side management, Meralco continues to encourage more businesses and industrial establishments to participate in the government’s Interruptible Load Program (ILP).

The ILP is an energy demand-side management program through which large-load customers are asked to use their generator sets or shift their operations, instead of drawing power from the grid, to spare households from power interruptions during instances of Red Alert or when supply is insufficient to meet the demand.

At present, more than 100 companies with over 500 MW of total de-loading capacity are enrolled in the ILP program within the Meralco franchise area.

In addition, Meralco has been consistently empowering consumers to embrace energy efficiency as a way of life. Based on latest data, residential consumption of electricity during the summer months jumps by 20 percent to 33 percent compared to the cooler months of January and February.