(Taguig City) The Department of Energy (DOE) is reinforcing efforts to ensure continuous power supply in the country by requesting the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to look into the recurring Yellow and Red Alert Statuses due to the lack of power supply for the period 25 to 29 July 2016.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi specifically asked ERC to look into whether there is the existence of an anti-competitive behavior from industry players. He was pleased to learn that ERC is already looking into it.

The coordination between the DOE and the ERC was triggered following the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ declaration of the Yellow Alert status from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Red Alert status from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Yellow Alert by 5:00 p.m. today (29 July).

As an immediate response, Manila Electric Corporation (MERALCO) has already coordinated with its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants to augment supply. As of 8:45 a.m., there were about 156 ILP participants that had confirmed their availability equivalent to 311.22 megawatts (MW).

The DOE is likewise closely monitoring developments in the plants that 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.

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