DOE to look into Luzon's power supply

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has been declaring “yellow and red alert statuses” for the past days since Monday due to lack of power supply

THE Department of Energy (DOE) has urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to look into the recurring tight power supply in the Luzon grid during the past days.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has been declaring "yellow and red alert statuses" for the past days since Monday due to lack of power supply, the Energy department said Friday.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi specifically requested ERC, an independent government body, "to look into whether there is the existence of an anti-competitive behavior from industry players," DOE said.

On Friday, NGCP declared yellow alert from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., red alert from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and yellow alert by 5 p.m.

DOE said the Manila Electric Corp. has already coordinated with its Interruptible Load Program participants to augment supply. About 156 ILP participants had confirmed their availability equivalent to 311.22 megawatts (MW).

The department also said that it is closely monitoring developments in the power plants, which have undergone forced outage, accounting for a total of 1,451 MW.

The DOE earlier stated that it will create technical audit teams for generation companies and distribution utilities to assess the reliability of the entire power industry.