(Taguig City) The Department of Energy (DOE), together with the entire power industry, remains keen on ensuring the availability of power supply and meeting the demand in support of the country's economic growth following the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’s (NGCP) earlier declaration of a Yellow Alert Status in the Luzon Grid, which is now downgraded to a Red Alert Status effective 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. today (30 July). To maintain the integrity of the grid, the NGCP implemented a manual load dropping at 10:35 a.m. outside the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) franchise, accounting for 38 MW.

In response, MERALCO activated its interruptible load program. A total of 281.19 megawatts (MW) of capacity has been committed as of 9:15 a.m by the 139 Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants, which started deloading at 10:01 a.m.

The DOE clarified the huge loss of power supply totaling to 2,946 MW is brought about by the outage of 647 Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant (SCFPP) Unit 2, 300 MW Calaca Coal-Fired Power Plant U2, 280 MW Malaya Thermal Power Plant (MTPP) U2, 302 MW GN Coal-Fired Power Plant U1, 382 Pagbilao Coal-Fired Power Plant U2, 360 MW Kalayaan U3 & U4 due to low water elevation and the maintenance of the 245 MW South Luzon Therma Energy Corporation (SLTEC) U1 & U2; while the 180 MW Kalayaan U2 and the 250 MW Sta. Rita Natural Gas Power Plant U2 are on planned maintenance shutdown. Meanwhile, the MTPP U1 is running on a limited capacity at 135 MW.

As of 6:00 a.m., the available capacity in Luzon Grid stood at 8,672 MW, while peak demand is projected at 8,209 MW.

Based on the NGCP projection, the power supply status will be on Yellow Alert by 2:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. due to the insufficiency of the contingency reserve. Moreover, SCFPP U2 will commence by 4:00 p.m. once technical procedures are done.

DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, through a letter dated 29 July 2016, asked the ERC to look into the matter and determine whether or not there is the existence of anti-competitive behavior by the industry players.

The DOE has already initiated the formation of technical audit teams which will validate the figures submitted by the generating companies and the distribution utilities. The technical audit teams aim to contribute in acquiring accurate data accurate data for the delivery of quality, reliable, secure and affordable supply of energy.

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