Power supply thins out due to heat

GRID operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said Wednesday the Luzon grid hit its highest peak load for the year at 14,016 megawatts which occurred at 2:54PM, breaching the projected peak for 2024 of 13,917 MW.

NGCP said the previous highest peak was at 13,864MW, which occurred on April 23, 2024 at 2:47PM.

Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan said in a TV interview that the high power consumption due to soaring temperatures resulted in thin power supply, especially

the reserves.

“Because of the continuing increase in temperatures around us, we have again red and yellow alerts for Luzon and Visayas,” Marasigan said. He added that Mindanao is also affected as it was placed on yellow alert.

“We really need the help of consumers to cooperate with our situation and we ask them to heed our call,” Marasigan said, citing the need for an efficient use of electricity.

Meanwhile, NGCP lifted the red alert for Luzon grid at 4:05PM Wednesday due to improved power generation capacity. However, Luzon grid was still on yellow alert from 4PM to 11PM.

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

Manila Electric Co. said that with the help of our big-load customers who deloaded from the grid, it did not resort to manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational power interruptions despite the red alert yesterday, April 23.

“Since the Luzon Grid is still under yellow and red alerts on April 24, we once again asked for the committed deloading capacities of our commercial and industrial customers under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to help ease the demand,” Meralco said.

Meralco said it is ready to implement MLD as part of its responsibility to manage the system, if necessary.

“We again urge the public to continue practicing energy conservation and efficiency measures,” Meralco said.