Meralco calls for more power sources amid increased demand

Power distributor Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Wednesday called for the establishment of additional power plants as Luzon and Visayas grids were placed in red and yellow alerts this week. 

Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga made the call after several power plants wend on forced outages, resulting in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to place Luzon under red alert on Tuesday.  

“Everybody agrees that what we really need is additional [power] capacity in the system. That means more power plants going on stream, especially new ones," Zaldarriaga said in a media briefing.

“Because yesterday was an indication... since we were forced to deal with manual load dropping (MLD), that the demand has outstripped the supply. If that is the situation, we have to try and shape the demand through various initiatives,” added Zaldarriaga.

Meralco’s Head of Utility Economics Larry Fernandez also said that the electricity demand in Meralco franchise areas has already shattered 2023’s high peak of 8,400 megawatts last Monday.  

“The maximum peak [electricity] demand for 2023 is 8,400 megawatts. Noong Lunes, nalampasan na [ito]. Na reach na iyong all-time peak demand last year," Fernandez said. 

(The maximum peak electricity demand for 2023 is 8,400 megawatts. It was already surpassed on Monday. It has already reached last year's all-time peak demand.)

"And we expect this to increase until the middle of May which is the usual time for demand power peak, including in Meralco franchise areas,” added Fernandez.

Power outages

Fernandez also said that it remains to be seen if the current power grid situation in the country would result in more rotating power outages.

“Since Meralco is just part of the Luzon grid and we are in the [power] distribution sector, we only rely on the grid operator for supply data and we take it day to day,” Fernadez said.

“On our part, our energy efficiency program, including our Interruptible Load Program (ILP), are ready to be tapped as needed,” Fernandez added.

Zaldarriaga then said that the Meralco’s ILP program, wherein participants with generator sets temporarily disengage from the Meralco grid to allow Meralco to accommodate additional demand from non-generator equipped structures such as residential areas, greatly helped in ensuring uninterrupted power supply.

“When ILP was implemented, it freed 340 megawatts [of supply] and this was consumed by those who did not have their own generator sets, which are residences,” Zaldarriga said.

“That 340 megawatts of baseload was really a big help,” Zaldarriaga added.

The NGCP has placed Luzon and Visayas grids on yellow alert again on Wednesday.

A yellow alert status means that energy reserves are thin in affected areas while a red alert status raised when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement. —VAL, GMA Integrated News