Brownouts looms in the Philippines as grid reserves get thin

Meralco warned its customers in Metro Manila and nearby provinces of possible rotating brownouts in the coming days.

The company has received an advisory from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines that it has raised the “yellow alert” for the grid.

The NGCP spokesperson, Cynthia Alabanza, said that a yellow alert means that while power plants in the Luzon grid can still meet the demand of consumers, the power reserve is quite thin.

She said the reserve had hit 300 megawatts, half of the ideal 647 megawatts.

“We should still save electricity since we’re on yellow alert. We have a low reserve. Hopefully no power plant will go offline, or else the reserve will get wiped out,” she said.

The Department of Energy said the yellow alert for the Luzon grid came as a result of the shutdown of three plants, the Calaca coal-fired power plant and the Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plants.

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