The National Electrification Administration (NEA) warned of possible rotational power interruptions lasting from one to two hours during the summer months due to lack of electricity reserves.
Citing data from the Department of Energy, Edgardo Masongsong, NEA administrator, said red alerts may be issued from April 18 to 21 and May 20 to 22 since an additional capacity of 256 megawatts (MW) to 821 MW is needed in the Luzon power grid to avoid such incident during the said periods.
In a briefing in Quezon City yesterday, Masongsong said demand is expected to be high during the summer season but this may be tapered due to the cancellation of several big events in the country because of the COVID-19 scare.
“In light of this, NEA has advised all electric cooperatives (ECs) in Luzon and Visayas to prepare their respective contingency plans to mitigate the impact of potential power supply deficits in their respective areas,” he said.
“NEA has also recommended various measures that ECs may adopt to help them address this potential problem, these include adopting demand-side management programs and maximizing embedded power plants to reduce, if not eliminate, rotating brownouts during peak hours,’’ he added.
Masongsong said in Luzon, five ECs including Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative, Isabela I Electric Cooperative, Isabela II Electric Cooperative, Zambales II Electric Cooperative and Sorsogon II Electric Cooperative Inc. have embedded power plants with a combined capacity of 11.696 MW.
In Visayas, three power distribution utilities such as Cebu I Electric Cooperative, Bohol I Electric Cooperative and Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative Inc. have embedded mini-hydro power plants with a total capacity of 10.42 MW.
Embedded power plants are facilities being used and managed by an industrial or commercial energy user for their own energy consumption.
NEA also mentioned that it asked ECs to implement their own versions of interruptible load program which encourages customers with large electricity consumption to run their own generator sets whenever supply of electricity falls short of projected demand.
Earlier, both the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines also warned about the possible shortage come summer season.
