(Taguig City)--The Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday (22 September) said it is accelerating efforts to restore lost power capacities as major power plants went on planned and forced outages. This placed the Luzon Grid on Yellow Alert status.

The lost power capacities due to the plant outages reached 1,364 megawatts (MW) following the planned outages of Pagbilao Unit 2 (382MW), San Lorenzo Unit 1 (250MW), Limay B6 (70MW); and the forced outage of the GNPower Unit 1 (302MW) and the unavailability of both Kalayaan Units 3 and 4 (360MW).

“Our priority now is to quickly restore power supply in the Luzon grid following the Yellow Alert status of the NGCP from 11AM to 4PM,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.

The DOE assured consumers that the power market is still normal despite the reduction of supply.

As of 1PM today, the power supply capacity in Luzon stood at 10,091MW with a projected demand of 9,469MW. The reserve level is at 622MW.

For Saturday and Sunday (23 and 24 September), there will be another set of planned reduction of supply due to the gas restriction from the Malampaya. The power situation may not be affected because there is an anticipated reduction on the demand for electricity. Nevertheless, the power situation is still being closely monitored by the DOE and the energy stakeholders.

“We are in close coordination with our energy stakeholders to normalize the power situation in the Luzon grid. We also appeal to our dear consumers to use energy wisely and assist in stabilizing energy situation,” Cusi concluded.

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