No blackouts will take place on May 10, the Philippines' first nationwide automated elections, the Department of Energy (DOE) said. The country's three largest islands — Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao — will not suffer from a power outage on the three days before, during, and after the polls, Energy Secretary Jose C. Ibazeta told reporters in a news briefing on Thursday. Luzon and Visayas are “assured of power supplies,” he said, adding that the agency has been building up water reserves for in dams in Mindanao, an island that relies heavily on hydro facilities for producing electricity. For three days from May 9 to 11, the department will order the release of water so “you'll have power in Mindanao,” he said. “We also have back-up contingencies in Mindanao and in the case of the Visayas we even prepared to bring power from the North to the South.” But at the same time, he admitted that the power situation in Mindanao is “pretty tight.” On election day, Luzon will have more than 1,200 MW of reserves, double the requirement of 647 MW. Visayas will have more than a 300 MW reserve while Mindanao will have reserves of up to 100 MW. Ibazeta said that the department is prepared to cut off power in Mindanao's business and commercial establishments and allot these to poll centers in the island. “We will deload. In other words, the industries will be cut off, any commercial establishment will be deloaded and priorities will be given to the polling centers,” he noted. Besides deloading, Ibazeta said the department will bring online the 650-MW Malaya plant on the elections. Bukidnon and Iligan will also provide additional 7 MW and 40 MW respectively. Command center to monitor energy supply, distribution Moreover, to monitor the supply and distribution situation in the three grids, the energy department has already established a command center. The facility will have “links in the region namely: north and south Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao,” Jesusito Sulit, senior adviser to the President of the National Grid Corp of the Philippines (NGCP), said. Status reports from the grids can be transmitted through voice, video, and facsimile communication, Sulit said. “If there are any problems we will coordinate with either the generators or the distribution utilities in order to solve the problems we might encounter during that day,” he said. If a generator trips, it will automatically be resolved. “There are various responses, but most of them are automatic. So if a generator trips there will be spinning reserves and frequency regulations generators that will track demand. Unless there are cascaded trippings there will be no need for human intervention,” he said. Since May 10 is a holiday, usage of power is minimal, thereby cutting the chances of a brownout, Ibazeta said.
