Visayas under yellow alert due to low power reserves

Citing relatively low power reserves, the Department of Energy has placed the Visayas grid under yellow alert.

 

While the DOE said the power situation in the Visayas is stable, it said it hopes no power plant goes down unexpectedly, GMA Cebu reported Thursday.

 

The Visayas grid's reserve power has gone down to about 90 megawatts, less than the ideal contingency reserve of 100 megawatts.

 

As of 6 a.m. Thursday, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines estimated the Visayas grid's power reserves at 96 megawatts.

 

"Patayin ang mga equipment or appliances na hindi ginagamit and to select, if you’re going to buy appliances or equipment, we should choose energy-efficient," advised DOE Central Visayas regional director Antonio Labios.

 

Meanwhile, the NGCP will get reserves from the Luzon grid if the power supply to the Visayas grid becomes insufficient.

Earth Hour
 

Meanwhile, the DOE is hoping this coming Saturday's Earth Hour - where people will switch off lights for an hour at 8:30 p.m. - will result in big power savings.

 

But the Visayan Electric Co. disputed this, saying there was no noticeable power savings in last year's Earth Hour.

 

"(One hour) is just a very small component of consumption of everything. We will still monitor, we hope it (energy consumption) will go down this year, we really hope," said VECO spokesperson Ma. Theresa Sederiosa. — Joel Locsin/JDS, GMA News