THE enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon has caused peak power consumption in the area to drop by 20 to 30 percent, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza said this was based on the projected demand of the Department of Energy (DOE).
“So there’s around 3,000-megawatt difference from what we have expected if there was no quarantine and from the actual consumption in Luzon,” Alabanza said during an online press briefing on Thursday.
With this development, she said NGCP is confident there will be no supply-related power interruption for Luzon for the duration of the ECQ, which is expected to end on April 13, 2020.
She said they are also keeping a skeletal workforce on standby to ensure they remain fully operational during the 30-day ECQ.
“This gives us the ability to immediately [attend to] any disruption in transmission lines so there will be no disruption in the supply of electricity in different [electric] cooperatives and distribution utilities all over the country,” Alabanza said.
In a television interview on Tuesday, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion III attributed the decline in energy demand in Luzon to the business disruption caused by the ECQ.
In kind
In a related development, Alabanza clarified the NGCP will no longer make its P1-billion cash donation to the government for its Covid measures as earlier announced.
Instead, she said NGCP will use P500 million of the amount to purchase medical equipment like respirators, laryngoscopes, full-face shields and other protective equipment to be distributed to its beneficiary hospitals.
The remaining half of the donation will be use to buy food packs to be distributed in various areas in the country, which were affected by Covid-19.