Public patience is wearing thin on the recurring brownouts, which plunged anew the Luzon grid, including Metro Manila, into another round of rotating brownouts lasting about an hour Wednesday, a day after power supply was stabilized in the region.

Meralco advised media that power outages affected portions of Manila, Malabon, Navotas, Pasay, and the provinces of Bulacan, Quezon, Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the reduced load of the Kalayaan and Magat hydropower plants triggered generation deficiency reaching as much as 236 megawatts (MW) as of 3 p.m. yesterday.

The system operator said the lost load from the Kalayaan plant was at 152 MW because its third unit has been taken out from the system due to low water level at Caliraya Lake.

It similarly reported that the Magat hydro plant’s generation was reduced to 30 MW at past noon, from an earlier load of 90 MW.

The new round of rotating brownouts came following an announcement from energy officials that supply disruptions may have already been over, after Sual and Calaca plants were back on-line Tuesday afternoon.

From a zero reserve prior to the onset of peak hours on Wednesday, generation deficiency suddenly worsened after the reported drastic drop in generation at the Kalayaan plant.

In Mindanao, the situation also turned from bad to worse after incurring generation deficiency of 510 megawatts; hence, prolonging the predicaments of consumers on power outages in the area.

Repeatedly, NGCP has attributed worsening condition in the grid “to limited available capacities of hydroelectric power plants, most of which have been due to very low water from reservoirs due to the El Niño phenomenon.”

For Visayas, the situation seem turning better, especially with the much-anticipated grid synchronization of the first unit of the 246-megawatt Toledo power plant before this weekend.

This is seen to add 82 MW to the grid starting March 5, easing supply situation in the area, primarily in Cebu.

“In the Visayas grid, Cebu Energy Development Corporation's plant is now operating at 21 MW,” an advisory from the NGCP has noted.

The system operator though cautioned that since the Toledo plant is still moving through its connection to the grid, it “is still undergoing technical tests and may increase its capacity to 42 MW” as expected Wednesday afternoon.

Massive fish kill spreads
Meanwhile in Pampanga, local officials and fishpond operators in the towns of Candaba, San Luis, and Arayat expressed alarm as tons of tilapia surfaced in their fishponds due to heat caused by the El Niño phenomenon. It came days after a massive fish kill was reported at the Magat River in Isabela.

Following the fish kill report, the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Region 3 instructed local agriculturists to give priority the immediate solution how to control the massive fish kills reportedly in the three reported municipal in the province of Pampanga.

Villa C. Quiambao, municipal agriculturist of San Luis, said fishpond owners in the town have lost millions of pesos due to the fish kill.

Since the onslaught of the El Niño, Quiambao said fishpond operators were able to harvest only two to three tons daily, compared to six to seven tons a day in the past years.

Aside from the fish kill problem, the fishpond owners also complained of the rising cost of fish feeds, which also one of the aggravated their losses.

The groups of fishponds in the province also claimed that only the traders of feeds and the middlemen were the ones who benefitted from the industry. (With a report from Franco G. Regala)