MikeLigalig.com

By Marie S. Neri

The rotating brownouts in Metro Manila and other adjoining areas are expected to remain after two units of the 1,000 megawatt (MW) Sual coal-fired power plant bogged down Monday afternoon.

Joe Zaldarriaga, external communications manager of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), said that the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the country’s transmission highway operator, has yet lifted its "red alert" status in the Luzon grid due to expected power supply deficiency.

NGCP said that as of 5:25 p.m. Monday, Luzon grid was still on red alert from 2 p.m. up to 9 p.m. due to “zero contingency reserve and generation deficiency.”

It said that one unit of Sual tripped off due to feedwater supply problem while unit 2 of Sual was not running due to coal supply limitations.

Aside from Sual, the power supply deficiency was also confounded by the generating deficiency of the 200-megawatt Calaca plant due to boiler tube leak, the maintenance shutdown of the 460-MW Quezon Power and the 600-MW Ilijan block B plants.

Meralco said the areas affected by rotating power interruptions included Marikina, North harbor, Sapang Palay, Baliwag and Malolos in Bulacan, Pamplona in Las Piñas and Imus in Cavite.

Meralco said the affected areas will suffer one to two hours power disruptions.

Meralco said that prior to the implementation of the manual load dropping, automatic load dropping happened at 12:41 p.m. affecting several areas in Metro Manila. Sual unit 1 has a capacity of 350 megawats.

The rotating brownouts are expected to last until 9 p.m. due to the insufficiency in the power supply, Meralco said.

Meralco said that the other areas affected by the manual load dropping between 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. were Sta. Ana, Pandacan, Sta. Mesa, Quiapo, Tondo and Sta. Cruz in Manila; Palanan in Makati; Bgys. South Triangle, Paltok, San Francisco Del Monte in Quezon City.

The affected areas in Laguna were portions of municipalities of Sta. Cruz, San Pablo and San Pedro and in Bulacan, were a large portion of municipalities of Guiguinto, Plaridel, Norzagaray and Angat. (PNA)
RMA/MSN/utb

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