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Power situation in Luzon back to normal

Following rotating brownouts over the weekend, the power situation in the Luzon grid is now back to normal according to authorities.

Industry and government officials said there would be no more rotating blackouts which affected various parts of Metro Manila over the weekend.

Officials also said the Luzon grid has met its peak demand and recorded reserves as key power plants posted high outputs.

Cynthia Perez-Alabanza, the spokesperson of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the, “system condition is normal.”

The power outages were due to complications affecting the operations at the Malampaya facilities in Palawan and the unexpected shutdown of the 1,200-megawatt (MW) Sual coal-fired power plant situated in Pangasinan.

Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit said “No brownouts” and further stressed that the replacement of damaged parts in the Malampaya project was scheduled to be completed yesterday.

Prior to Saturday, the NGCP has asked the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the largest power distributor in the country, to implement a three-hour rotating power interruption from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This has affected portions of Sta Mesa, Balintawak, Sampaloc, Bulacan, and Novaliches.

During this month of June, power interruptions were also felt in the province of Ilocos Sur as well as in the province of Leyte.

The towns of Narvacan, Santa Maria, Burgos, Nagbunkel, San Emilio, and Lidlidda in Ilocos Sur experienced power interruptions due to the implementation of corrective maintenance on a 69kV transmission line along San Esteban to Narvacan. The power interruptions were scheduled up to 10 hours from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 6.

Last week on Saturday (June 09), power interruptions in the province of Leyte occured within the hours of 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. This was also due to preventive maintenance procedures.