MANILA -- Two of 4 power plants that were hit by unplanned outages will resume operations this weekend and are expected to help replenish reserves that beset Luzon with rotational brownouts, the Department of Energy said Thursday.
The Sual plant in Pangasinan province disconnected from the Luzon grid on Wednesday due to a pump leak, said DOE Electric Power Industry Management Bureau chief Mario Marasigan.
The first unit of the South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp's thermal plant stopped operating last March 20 due to a boiler problem, he said.
Both plants, which generate some 780 megawatts, will resume operations on Saturday, removing the need to declare supply alerts for the Luzon power grid, Marasigan said.
Red alert, the highest warning, will be in place Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by yellow alert, the second highest, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., said the official.
Yellow alert means power supply is sufficient, but brownouts are possible if the 2 biggest energy plants falter, he said. Under red alert, big power consumers are urged to use their generator sets, he added.
Two other power plants hit by unplanned outages -- the Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp Unit 2 and the Pagbilao Unit 3 -- are set to resume operations on April 21 and 16, respectively, said Marasigan.
The 2 facilities, he said, have a combined output of 570 MW.
All plants that went on unscheduled outages have been directed to explain the incident to regulators, Marasigan said.
DZMM, power, electricity, Luzon grid, red alert, yellow alert, DOE, energy, power plants, unplanned outage