Contingency measures in place to address supply issues: Meralco

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A Manila Electric Company (Meralco) executive said contingency measures have been put in place to address any need to boost power supply after a yellow alert status was raised for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.

Data released by the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that yellow alert, a gauge that shows low level of power supply in the grid, was raised from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

In an interview here, Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said they have been informed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) about the yellow alert early on, thus, the distribution utility (DU) has advised its big clients that have  their own generators to prepare for the possible implementation of the interruptible load program (ILP) from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“So we requested all the participants under the program to delay (the implementation of the ILP) if needed,” he said.

Under ILP, Meralco customers with big requirements but have their own generators are asked to use these units to lessen demand from the DU.

Asked for measures on how to address the current low supply due to the planned outage of several power plants and de-rating of some,  Zaldarriaga said “we’re taking it a day at a time and we rely on the advice coming from the grid operator”.

“But as far as Meralco is concerned, we have contingency measures in place, particularly the ILP. And we are suggesting that our consumers continue to practice energy efficiency so that we can have a way to somehow manage our demand,” he added.

Data released by the DOE showed that as of 10:30 a.m., nine power plants have units that are on planned maintenance and have lessened total dependable capacity of 2,176 megawatts (MWs) from the system.

These units of power plants are the Unit 1 of TeaM Energy Corp. Sual coal-fired power plant; Units 3 and 4 of CBK Power Ltd. Kalayaan pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant; Unit 4 of Panasia Energy Inc. Limay combined cycle power power plant; Unit 2 of Masinloc Power Partners Co.

Ltd. Masinloc coal-fired power plant; Unit 1 of AP Renewables Inc. Makban Geothermal Power Plant; and Unit 2 of SEM-Calaca Power coal-fired power plant.

The earliest resumption of these power plant units is on Dec. 6, 2019 while some are yet to be determined.

There are six power plants that are currently on forced outage and the earliest estimated time of resumption of operations is on Nov. 27.

These power plants are the San Buenaventura Power Ltd. coal-fired power plant; Quezon Power Ltd. coal-fired power plant; Unit 6 of AP Renewables Inc. Tiwi geothermal power plant; Unit 2 of South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation coal-fired power plant; Unit 1 of GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. coal-fired power plant; and Unit 2 of Prime Meridian Power Corp. Avion natural gas-fired power plant.

There are also de-rated power plants that have de-rated capacity of 242 MWs.

Amid the power supply issues, Zaldarriaga is confident that areas where the South East Asian (SEA) Games will be held will not experience power interruptions.

“We’re hoping that even it’s a yellow alert status that we won’t have to resort to any manual load dropping schedule,” he said.

“We have constantly coordinated with all our customers, particularly in areas where the games are being held. Rest assured that we have contingency measures in place to ensure that there will be no disruption of supply in those areas,” he added.