While no major power supply issues were experienced since election day on May 9 – apart from normal line trippings experienced by power distributors – the Manila Electric Co. said demand-side management programs throughout the dry season should still be pursued vigorously.
This is to ensure availability of safe, adequate and reliable power supply throughout summer.
At the Laging Handa public briefing Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza Jr. of the Department of Energy (DOE) said 201 interruptions covering 61 electric cooperatives and distribution utilities (DUs) were recorded to date from May 9.
“The most recorded were seven interruptions in five DUs.
The average length of interruptions that occurred were from 70 to 130 minutes with the longest at four hours and the shortest at 15 minutes, Erguiza said.
He added the interruptions were not directly related to elections but line trippings that are considered as normal occurrences in a power system.
Erguiza said power was restored within a day in the areas where interruptions were experienced as the battery systems were not used.
Meralco said its franchise area did not experience any major power interruption on election day.
It, however, recorded 35 isolated outage incidents in its franchise area. All were immediately addressed by field personnel.
Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco spokesman, said the company will continue to be on alert to respond to any distribution-related problem until the conclusion of the election process.
Meralco calls on more participants to join the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) where customers with large electricity consumption are encouraged to run their own generator sets whenever supply of electricity in the grid is short, in exchange for monetary incentives. The fuel that they will use in running their own power source are also paid by consumers.
As of May 10, there were 121 companies with combined de-loading capacity of 554 megawatts in Meralco’s franchise area under ILP.
Meralco also advises residential customers to strategically use appliances such as airconditioning units and refrigerators during the duration of the summer months.
