High rise buildings can be seen as a woman riding an electric bike pass through C-6 in Taguig City on Feb. 23, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA — The Department of Energy said there was no need for residents in Luzon to fear brownouts on Monday, after a reduced operating margin prompted authorities to raise the second highest alert over the island.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines earlier in the day (shortly before 9 a.m.) said Luzon would be under yellow alert from 1 to 3 p.m., after the operating requirement stood at 11,344 megawatts (MW) against the 11,760 MW available capacity.
One power plant encountered problems, but would soon go back to its normal operations, said Energy Undersecretary Felix William "Wimpy" Fuentebella.
"Meron tayong yellow alert ‘pag nagkakaroon ng manipis, hindi naman siya kulang, pero manipis iyong supply," he said in a televised public briefing. "Yellow alert means wala tayong aasahan na rotational brownout or power interruption."
(We raise yellow alert, when the supply is thin, not insufficient. Yellow alert means we are not expecting any rotational brownout or power interruption.)
"We are expecting anytime soon, kung walang madadagdag pang aberya sa ibang planta, all things go well, as planned, mali-lift na po ‘yong yellow alert. So wala tayong masyadong dapat ipangamba," he added.
(If there is no additional problems at other plants and all things go well, as planned, the yellow alert will be lifted. So we won't have much to worry about.)
The NGCP later said that the yellow alert for the Luzon grid has been lifted as of 10:15 a.m. "due to sufficient generating capacity."
Earlier this month, a shortage in energy caused rotational brownouts in Luzon.
The energy department has reported to the Cabinet and coordinated with enforcement agencies about the June brownouts.
Last week, it said it is highly probable the country's electricity reserves may fall within yellow or even red alert levels until July due to the scheduled preventive maintenance of two power plants.
Mario Marasigan, DOE Electric Power Industry Management Bureau director, said the maintenance activities at Ilijan and Pagbilao power plants were cleared by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
Aside from that, power supply may also go on critical level due to outages of some other plants, and derating of the remaining ones.
energy, electricity, yellow alert Luzon, red alert Luzon grid, brownouts, blackout, power shortages power supply, NGCP, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, DOE, Department of Energy, Wimpy Fuentebella