Luzon Grid under Red Alert, rotational brownouts possible

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon Grid on Red Alert Status ahead of schedule on Monday, as it warned of rotational brownouts across the region.

In an advisory, the NGCP said the Luzon Grid was placed under Red Alert starting 1 p.m. and will last until 3 p.m., indicating that there is zero ancillary services or that a generation deficiency exists.

According to the Department of Energy, power reserves have declined due to plant outages along with limited plant capacity, along with higher power demand due to the heat.

The NGCP earlier said the Luzon Grid will be placed under Red Alert from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

In another advisory, the NGCP said manual load dropping or rotational brownouts in several areas from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.:

• ISELCO I (parts of Isabela)
• QUIRELCO (entire province of Quirino)
• OEDC (Olongapo City)
• QUEZELCO (parts of Quezon)
• CASURELCO II (parts of Camarines Sur)
• MERALCO (parts of Metro Manila)

2 p.m. to 3 p.m.:

• INEC (parts of Ilocos Norte)
• LUELCO (parts of La Union)
• ZAMECO I and II (parts of Zambales)
• QUEZELCO (parts of Quezon)
• CANORELCO (parts of Camarines Norte)
• APEC (parts of Albay)
• MERALCO (parts of Metro Manila)

"Schedule may be canceled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections," the NGCP said.

The available capacity was recorded at 11,729 megawatts, while peak demand is estimated at 11,514 megawatts.

"NGCP encourages everyone to exercise prudence in using electricity," it added. —KBK, GMA News