While Filipinos eagerly await the Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton fight on Sunday, the electricity grid operator is hurriedly preparing for a surge in power demand from all the television sets that will be tuned in to the boxing match.
Historical data from National Grid Corp. of the Philippines? System Operations Group showed that demand increases by as much as 100 megawatts whenever Pacquiao has a televised boxing match.
The projected power demand for the Pacquiao-Hatton fight on fight day is 5,400 megawatts, and the available generation capacity is about 7,000 megawatts or 1,600 megawatts more than the projected power consumption.
The increase is attributed to the increase in the number of television sets switched on to watch Pacquiao, who has been called the ?national fist.? TV sets can consume anywhere from 130 to 380 watts, depending on the model.
Malls, movie houses and other commercial establishments also open for business earlier to accommodate customers who want to watch the fight ?live? via satellite in theaters. The showdown Sunday has been billed as the ?fight of the year? by CNN.
The grid operator?s vice president for systems operations, Carlito Claudio, said the spike in demand could be handled by the ?load following? plants that regulate and compensate for fluctuations in load on a daily basis.
?We are prepared for the high power demand,? he added. ?As a matter of fact, we attained the highest peak demand this year of 6,845 megawatts on April 16 without any customer experiencing load curtailment.?
Previous peaks
Earlier in April, the country experienced several days of sweltering summer heat that drove electricity consumption up, as the use of cooling appliances increased.
In previous years, such a surge in demand combined with the summer heat?s debilitating effect on the country?s hydroelectric power plants were enough to cause brownouts.
But the recent summer showers have cooled temperatures and lowered the need for air conditioners and electric fans. That benefits hydropower plants, which have to work less and consume less water supply.
But an uninterrupted viewing of the Pacquiao-Hatton showdown is premised on all systems?power generation, distribution and transmission facilities?running smoothly on Sunday.
?As long as there are no unplanned outages of large generating units, we will be able to meet the system demand,? Claudio explained.
The National Grip Corp. is the concessionaire that took over the operations of the country?s power transmission system from state-owned National Transmission Corp.
