Meralco: 920,000 customers hit by 2-3 hours rotating brownouts

Nearly a million customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) experienced power interruptions lasting two to three hours on Wednesday evening as the Luzon power grid was placed under red alert due to thin reserves resulting from plant outages.

In its situation update as of 7:30 p.m., Meralco said its manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational brownouts was implemented following the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) hoisting of red alert over Luzon from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. as power reserves were crippled following the forced outage of several plants which resulted in the unavailability of over 3,000 megawatts (MW) combined capacity.

With this, the NGCP is implementing MLD or rotational brownouts across Luzon island, including Meralco’s franchise area.

Meralco said the MLD, lasting two to three hours, “has affected more than 920,000 customers in parts of Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, and Rizal—with around 270,000 services already restored.”

In its latest update, the NGCP said MLD might be implemented in the following areas from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. “to maintain the integrity of the power system”:

• LUECO (parts of La Union)
• ISECO (parts of Ilocos Sur)
• CENPELCO (parts of Pangasinan)
• ISELCO I (parts of Isabela)
• QUIRELCO (entire province of Quirino)
• BATELEC II (parts of Batangas
• Ibaan Electric Corp. (parts of Batangas)
• ALECO (parts of Albay)
• PELCO (parts of Pampanga)
• SFELAPCO (parts of Pampanga)
• QUEZELCO I (parts of Quezon)
• MERALCO (parts of Metro Manila)

“To lessen the strain on the grid, our big-load customers under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) have been helping ease demand through de-loading of around 240 MW total capacity. Rest assured that we are closely monitoring and managing the situation, and will provide updates as needed,” Meralco said.

A red alert is the highest alert level and is declared when the electricity supply is insufficient to meet demand because reserves are depleted.

During this status, widespread power interruptions or rotational brownouts are expected as electricity is temporarily cut in certain areas on a scheduled basis to prevent the entire grid from collapsing. — BAP, GMA News