Power supply in Luzon returned to normal last
week, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP)
said the grid’s capacity stood at 8,068 megawatts against a demand of 7,515 MW.
This translated to reserves of 553 MW.
On Monday, the Luzon
grid went on red alert because of forced outages of some plants, including the
600-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas. A red alert means there is
severe power deficiency.
A gas supply
restriction at the deep water to gas Malampaya facility also tightened the
output of the Ilijan natural gas power plant.
The Manila Electric
Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, implemented one-hour
rotating blackouts in its franchise area on Monday.
Petilla said the
Calaca plant went online on Monday afternoon at 3:41 p.m.
In an advisory
yesterday, Meralco said there were no scheduled blackouts even as power
reserves remained thin.
It was not the first
time power plants went on forced outages, but it highlighted the problem of
aging power plants.
Aging power plants are
also being blamed for the growing incidence of emergency and extended
maintenance shutdowns of the country’s power plants, highlighting the need for
new power facilities, officials said.
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