The water levels of Lake Lanao in Lanao del Sur and Pulangi Dam in Bukidnon have receded due to lack of rain, officials said on Tuesday.
Atty. Edgar Ramirez said on the phone that as of 12 noon on Tuesday, the water level at Lake Lanao stood at 700.7 meters and 283.9 meters at Pulangi Dam.
Ramirez is the plant manager of National Power Corporation – Mindanao Generation Group’s (NPC-MGG) Agus 6 and Agus 7 hydroelectric power plants.
The critical water level at Lake Lanao is pegged at 698 meters, Ramirez told the Inquirer.
Engr. Willy Alfeche, plant manager of NPC-MGG’s Pulangi hydroelectric power plant, said in a separate interview that the water level of the Pulangi Dam has also gone down.
He cited as reason the lack of rainfall, with silt compounding the problem.
The normal level of Pulangi Dam is 285 meters, Alfeche said, noting that the current water level of 283.9 meters is already below normal.
Meanwhile, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Mindanao Regional Office placed the Mindanao Grid on yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
The grid’s available capacity stood at 2,555 megawatts (MW) against the peak demand of 2,450 MW.
Elizabeth Ladaga, NGCP corporate public relations specialist, said that at least 766 MW are lacking in the Mindanao grid.
She said this situation is due to the forced outage or below-normal capacities of several power plants in the island in the past few months.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is not enough to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement, the NGCP said.