Power interruptions loom as Luzon grid placed under red alert on Monday

Power interruptions could be experienced anew on Monday, as the Luzon grid was placed under red alert status due to thinning reserves.

In a press conference in Taguig City, Energy spokesperson Felix William "Wimpy" Fuentebella said the Luzon grid will be placed under red alert from 1 to 4 p.m. on Monday.

A red alert is a system condition when there is zero ancillary services, or a generation deficiency exists.

"The Yellow and Red Alerts are caused by the insufficient operating reserves due to the forced outage of multiple power plants," Fuentebella told reporters.

"Depending on system operations, occurrence of power outages from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. is still possible."

The grid was placed under yellow alert — a condition in which the reserves are less than the capacity of the biggest plant online — earlier in the day, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

According to data released by the DOE on Monday, at least eight power plants in Luzon were on unplanned or forced outages.

In a separate post on Facebook, the NGCP said it may implement manual load dropping (MLD) in select areas outside Metro Manila from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.:

• ISECO (parts of Ilocos Sur)
• ISELCO II (parts of Isabela)
• PRESCO
• PELCO I, PELCO II (parts of Pampanga)
• BATELEC II (parts of Batangas)
• QUEZELCO I (parts of Quezon)
• CASURECO II (parts of Camarines Sur)
• MERALCO (parts of Metro Manila)

"Schedule may be canceled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections," the NGCP said. —KBK/KG, GMA News