TAGUIG CITY - The Department of Energy (DOE) is continuously monitoring the supply and demand situation in the Luzon Grid which is on "RED ALERT" from 9AM to 5PM and 6PM to 11PM, and "YELLOW ALERT" from 8AM to 9AM, 5PM to 6PM, and 11PM to 12MN.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND FIGURES

The DOE presented the supply and demand situation, with the total projected available capacity today at 11,260 MW, relative to the projected system peak demand at 11,515 MW which is expected to occur between 2PM to 3PM. During this period, the highest possible level of load that will be dropped from the system is around 716 MW.

*Kindly refer to the accompanying table for the breakdown of powerplants in the Luzon Grid on Outage as of today (2 June 2021).*

• Total Planned outage = 435 MW

• Total Unplanned / Forced Outage = 1,579 MW

• Total Major Derating = 484 MW (Ilijan’s reduced output to 716 MW due to ongoing Malampaya gas restriction from 835 MW in the previous week)

Sual Coal-fired Power Plant Unit 2, which has been on unplanned outage since 16 May 2021, has been fired at 5:30 AM and is expected to fully synchronize to the grid by 4:00 PM today. This will provide the grid an additional 647 MW capacity.

In order to address the high system demand in the Luzon grid, MERALCO called out its interruptible load program (ILP) participants to voluntarily deload from the grid during the red alert. As of 9:30AM, ILP committed capacity is at 195.53 MW from 98 participating accounts.

MANUAL LOAD DROP OR POWER INTERRUPTION

NGCP may implement Manual Load Dropping (MLD) in the following areas today, June 2, to maintain the integrity of the power system:

9:00-10:00AM:
LUELCO (parts of La Union and Pangasinan)
QUEZELCO I (parts of Quezon)
CASURECO II (parts of Camarines Sur) 
MERALCO (parts of Metro Manila)
Schedule may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections. 

MARKET INTERVENTION

The Secondary Price Cap is now in effect. This allows the market operator to cap the prices in the market at 6.245 Php as a protection for the consumers from possible price spikes. During the duration of the rotational outages, the Market Intervention is also activated to allow the System Operator to dispatch all available capacities. An Administered Price is also utilized during the Market Intervention to cushion any possible impact of high prices during the period.

WAY FORWARD

The DOE continues to monitor the power situation and will submit factual information for the consumers and the enforcement agencies, including the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Philippine Competition Commission and the Department of Justice, considering its long term strategy of addressing the power supply and demand situation during the summer season. It continues to remind the distribution utilities and the system operator of its contracting obligations to address the needed capacity increases for a reliable power system for its consumers.

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