Visayan Electric notes increase in demand for power, rotational brownouts may not happen

Visayan Electric has noted a recent increase in the demand for power apparently due to the hot weather condition.    | file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Due to the hot weather, the Visayan Electric Company, the second-largest private electric utility in the Philippines, has noted an increase in demand for power.

Quennie Bronce, head of the Reputation Enhancement Department at Visayan Electric, told CDN Digital that just last Thursday afternoon, April 27, 2023, the total demand at about 2 p.m. of that day reached 614 megawatts.

The peak demand for electricity that Visayan Electric saw in 2019—before the pandemic and before SuperTyphoon Odette—was only 601 megawatts.

“Ni-increase g’yod ta,” she told CDN Digital.

“We cannot tell [if the trend would be increasing] kay basta weekend, mu ubos man gud na ang demand with the schools and some companies closed,” she added.

While the NGCP lifted the red alert status it issued on Thursday, and the consequent rotational brownouts advisory of Visayan Electric, for now, Bronce appealed to consumers to conserve energy by making sure that their appliances are well-maintained and take advantage of natural lighting if possible.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), on Thursday, April 27, 2023, raised a red alert status in the Visayas grid after a system disturbance was recorded on that day.

Consequently, VECO, on the same day, issued a separate advisory warning its consumers of a “high possibility” of rotational brownouts.

A red alert status indicates that the supply-demand balance in the grid has further deteriorated and signals the possibility of rotational brownouts, or temporary outages on a rotating basis, to ensure that all customers in the franchise area are affected equally.

The red alert status was lifted on Thursday night.

However, while the NGCP was able to resolve the system disturbance on Thursday, caused by a tripping of a distribution utility-owned line which then caused power plants to disengage from the transmission system, another system disturbance occurred on Friday afternoon.

The NGCP then, in an advisory on Saturday morning, said that it has already restored all transmission facilities, less than four hours after the second system disturbance in the Visayas grid was monitored on Friday, caused by generation tripping.     /rcg

READ:

Rotational brownouts to hit 1.3 million houses in 2023 — DOE

Visayan Electric: No rotating brownouts in franchise area