Power supply in Luzon back to normal – Energy official

(Updated 3:19 p.m.) Power supply in Luzon is back to normal after two power plants that went on emergency shutdown are back online, an Energy official said Wednesday.

However, residents in Mindanao will still experience rotating brownouts in some areas until new power plants come on stream by end-2015 and in 2016.

The Luzon grid is out of the yellow alert as of Tuesday afternoon after the Pagbilao Unit 2 Power Plant in Quezon province and Tiwi Power Plant in Albay went back online, Department of Energy director Mylene Capongcol told GMA News Online by phone.

Pagbilao and Tiwi have a combined 400 megawatt (MW) capacity.

"Kahapon lang naging yellow alert noong nag-emergency shutdown yung two plants Monday night but this was lifted by 4 p.m.," she said.

Meanwhile, Presidential Communications Operations Office head Sonny Coloma Jr. said that according to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, "the DOE is closely monitoring the day-to-day energy situation in view of [the] tight supply with the onset of the summer months."

"The reported increase in Meralco's generation charge is based on market-driven pricing. Government continues to monitor electricity price movements to ensure that these are neither excessive nor exorbitant," Coloma said.  

"The Malaya plants have been commissioned since March. Presently, only Malaya 2 is operational due to ongoing repair and maintenance work on Malaya 1 which is expected to return on-line within two weeks," he added.

'Yellow alert'

In a GMA News' 24 Oras report which aired Tuesday night, Meralco warned that brownouts may take place as the Luzon grid is currently on yellow alert – with just a 217-MW power reserve, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) – after two power plants went on emergency shutdown.

As of Wednesday 6 a.m., power reserve in Luzon was at 716 MW according to the NGCP.

The NGCP defines a “yellow alert” as a system condition where the total of all reserves is less than the capacity of the largest plant online, which for the Luzon grid, is 647 MW.

However, Capongcol clarified that the yellow alert does not necessarily mean there will be brownouts taking place but power reserve is just thin.

"There's just less than adequate reserve," she said.

The Energy official said the Luzon grid will further have more power reserve when three plants with a total capacity of 900 MW will come online by April 10, Thursday. 

These are the load following and frequency regulator (LFSR), the contingency reserve and the dipatchable reserve.

The LFSR, which is 4 percent of the total demand, regulates sudden power fluctuations to address shortfall. The contingency reserve is equivalent to the highest online power plant while the dispatchable reserve are offline plants equivalent to the highest online power plant that can be be turned on when power supply falls.

Visayas grid has an adequate power supply with 477-MW power reserve but Mindanao still has a 113 MW shortfall in supply, according to the NGCP.

"We're under market intervention but other areas in Mindanao remain to have rotating brownout," Capongcol said.

The region will have adequate power supply only when the new power plants start operating by end-2015 and early 2016, she said.

The two new plants will have a combined capacity of 905 MW. — with Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News