Energy Sector All Set for Election Day

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The Power Task Force Election (PTFE), led by the Department of Energy (DOE), has beefed up its power monitoring to ensure adequate, stable and reliable electricity supply for the election period.

In a press briefing held in Quezon City, Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada announced that the PTFE’s headquarter is now in operation starting 12:00 noon today, putting a 24-hour monitoring on the plants’ status and power situation in the whole country to make sure that all systems are ready to provide electricity services on Election Day until all votes are canvassed.

While there are two plants on forced outage (180 megawatt (MW)-Kalayaan U4 until May 14, and 300MW Malaya U1 until May 10), Sec. Monsada emphasized that the power supply reserves in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao tomorrow, May 9, are all above normal levels due to the low demand projection since Election Day is a holiday, in which the demand is lower than that during regular working days.

Moreover, Avion Gas Plant, which is undergoing commissioning may inject 45MW of power to the grid.

Sec. Monsada hopes that there will be no tripping of power plants tomorrow, although she emphasized that contingency measures are in place. She further stressed that the PFTE ensures that all voting precincts will have provision of electricity to ensure a clean and unquestionable elections.

The power projection for tomorrow (May 09):

	Luzon	Visayas	Mindanao
System Capacity	10,374 MW	1,864 MW	1,598MW
Demand	7,764MW	1,655 MW	1,363
Gross Reserve	2,710MW	209MW	235MW
Peak Demand Time	1:00p.m.-3:00p.m.	5:00p.m.-7:00p.m.	5:00p.m.-7:00p.m.

On grid monitoring, this includes regional command centers in North and South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, which all have links to substations in regional and district command centers.

For Distribution Utilities (DUs), the National Electrification Administration has also command centers for electric cooperatives, while the National Power Corporation is monitoring the rural areas under Small Power Utilities Group.

In addition, Manila Electric Company (Merlaco), in support of the DOE call for ensuring provision adequate and reliable supply, has established its own command center. Meralco has reported that 786 MW were committed under the Interruptible Load Program.

In another news, Sec. Monsada reiterated that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Securing Energy Facilities goes beyond election to protect energy facilities, including the transmission towers. Despite the fact that the Transmission Tower No. 25 has been bombed and toppled again, Agus 1 and Agus 2 can still provide power to the Mindanao grid because alternate lines were restored.

The PTFE also enjoins the public to report any power disruption or untoward incident to the following contact details:

SMART: 0998-381-6167
GLOBE: 0917-541-4917

Moreover, power supply updates on Election Day will be published through the DOE’s Twitter account (@DOE_PH), Facebook account (www.facebook.com/doe.gov.ph) and the DOE website (www.doe.gov.ph), as well as in various social networking sites of the Election Power Task Force members at a designated time in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

Even without elections, the DOE continues to encourage all energy consumers to practice efficient and judicious use of electricity in their day-to-day activities.

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