Brownout Watch: Luzon Outages Return as Power Supply Runs Short
Rotating brownouts returned in parts of Luzon on May 15 as NGCP placed the grid under red alert amid high demand and forced plant outages.
Luzon consumers were told to brace for another round of rotating brownouts on Friday as tight power supply, forced plant outages and hot dry season demand strained the island’s electricity grid.
According to GMA News, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said manual load dropping could be implemented from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. in several franchise areas. The list included parts of La Union, Isabela, Cabanatuan City, Angeles City, Batangas, Albay, Quezon, Camarines Norte and Metro Manila areas served by Meralco.
The advisory covered multiple one-hour windows, with some areas facing possible interruptions from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Olongapo City, Abra and several parts of Pangasinan, Cagayan, Pampanga, Batangas and Bicol were also among the areas named in the schedule.
NGCP said manual load dropping is used to protect the transmission system when available power is not enough to meet demand during a red alert. For May 15, the Luzon grid had 12,075 megawatts of available capacity against peak demand of 12,927 megawatts, leaving an 852-megawatt shortfall.
The grid operator also reported 17 plants on forced outage since May, with unavailable capacity reaching 4,828 megawatts. NGCP said the brownout schedule could still be cancelled if conditions improve, and urged consumers to use electricity prudently. Source: GMA News Online
