Marcos orders DOE to stabilize grid, protect consumers from brownouts -Palace

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has given orders to have power grid conditions stabilized following the series of forced outages that have affected several areas in the past few days.

Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said this in a press conference on Monday, citing a message from the Department of Energy (DOE).

She said the agency has ordered the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to act on the matter.

“Under the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to immediately stabilize grid conditions and protect consumers from power disruptions, the DOE swiftly ordered NGCP’s restoration of affected transmission lines,” Castro said.

She said this includes the Tayabas-Ilijan 500kV and Dasmariñas-Ilijan 500kV line.

According to the Palace Press Officer, the NGCP was also tasked to “provide the full technical and incident reporting to ensure accountability and the safe return of critical capacities to the grid.”

She said the DOE also “actively worked with generating companies to safely synchronize affected supply capacities back on the grid.”

The energy department also mobilized the grid reliability task force with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), and Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM).

The Luzon and Visayas grids were earlier placed on yellow and red alerts due to the forced outages of several plants, coupled with higher demand amid the hot, dry season.

A yellow alert indicates that the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement, while a red alert indicates that there is zero ancillary service or that a generation deficiency exists.

The Visayas Grid was placed under yellow alert anew on Monday, still due to the forced outages and derated capacity of several plants. –NB, GMA News