Power Supply Back to Normal

The Department of Energy (DOE) earnestly calls on the cooperation of the public to undertake energy efficiency and conservation initiatives despite normalization of power supply following the prolonged forced outages of some plants coinciding with other plants’ maintenance shutdown.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada said “In facing this critical phase concerning our power supply, we are counting on the collective effort of everybody to practice energy efficiency and/or by adjusting the usage period of any electric appliances away from the peak hours (i.e., 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.), such as, ironing of clothes, unnecessary use of computers, and even laundering of clothes using washing machine and drier, as any contribution really does matter.”

She added that energy consumers are urged to set the thermostat of air-conditioning units installed in their offices and households at 25˚Celsius.

This appeal came as peak demand has reached 9,255 MW breaching the highest recorded peak demand for the third time for this month alone, which can attributed to the hottest El Niño to date.

Meanwhile, the DOE received a latest report from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the system operator, that the power supply status is already back to “normal” as Sual Unit 2 accounting for about 647 MW  was already back online. Additionally, the Tiwi Geothermal Plant Unit 6 with a dependable capacity of 43 MW is also back in operation.

Moreover, the government-owned Malaya power plant is already running and providing 330 MW of capacities augmenting the power supply in Luzon. Moreover, the DOE, in coordination with MERALCO, has also prepared the 826 MW enrolled capacities under the Interruptible Load Program, a program in which big load customers may opt to choose to run their generating facilities for own use, to help augment the supply.

Furthermore, the DOE continues to monitor the developments of the 300 megawatts (MW) Calaca Unit 2 and the 119 MW TMO Units 5 and 6 that were on forced outage, while also ensuring that plants that are on planned maintenance shutdown are on schedule to come on stream before the critical election period. (DOE)