MANILA – Following the simultaneous forced outages of power generating plants in the Luzon grid on Monday, the Department of Energy (DOE) assured the public that there is no shortage of fuel supply in the country.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) stated that Luzon grid was on yellow alert between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Red alert was raised from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“We assure the public that the DOE is verifying the cause of the forced outages this morning as there appears to be no fuel supply constraints. A team from the DOE will conduct actual physical spot checks and validate the condition of the transmission lines and the affected power plants,” DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.
When power reserves fall below optimal levels, a yellow alert is raised for the grid.
When power reserves exceed the maintaining level of 4 percent of peak demand, a red alert is raised. Rotational brownouts are implemented during a red alert status.
The NGCP said early Monday that seven power plants went on forced outage and three others were operating at reduced capacity. The grid lost a total of 3,627 megawatts.
According to the NGCP’s Twitter account, areas that experienced rotational brownouts Monday were parts of Ilocos Norte, Baguio City, Benguet, Cagayan, Apayao, Pampanga, Laguna, Quezon Province, Camarines Sur, Albay, and Metro Manila.
