No brownouts in Luzon in July, power supply sufficient - Palace

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines -- The Aquino administration allayed fears of possible brownouts in Luzon this July saying that the private power grid operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has sufficient power supply to sustain the needs of electricity consumers.

In an interview aired over government-run dzRB Radyo ng Bayan on Saturday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said the government, through the Department of Energy (DOE), has started implementing measures to cushion the possible power shortage.

"We don’t agree na may nakaambang power outages. In fact, nagsabi na po ang NGCP na they successfully hurdled the yellow alert," Valte said.

Last June 21, the NGCP went on yellow alert as the power reserves of Luzon fell below 647 megawatts (MW). The NGCP defines a “yellow alert” as a system condition where the total of all reserves is less than the capacity of the largest plant online, which for the Luzon grid, was 647 MW.

Upon the instruction of President Benigno S. Aquino III, the DOE has been in constant communication with several power-generating companies to ensure a sufficient supply of power.

The Chief Executive earlier instructed the DOE to coordinate with the NGCP and dominant electricity distributor, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), to thresh out contingency measures aimed at preventing brownouts, according to Valte.

"And because of the tight monitoring and coordination, hindi nagkaroon ng mga blackout as feared by some," Valte said.

Reports said the ERC has approved Meralco's petition for a maximum average price (MAP) of P1.6303 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for distribution, supply and metering charges to different customer classes.

"We will leave it up to the ERC to answer kung ano po ‘yung basis nila for saying that there should be a hike for the customers, for the clients of this particular distributor," she said. 

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