SENATOR Imee Marcos on Monday called on the government to firm up measures to manage, if not prevent, power outages when votes are cast and counted in the elections next month.

The chairperson of the Senate Committee on Electoral Reforms issued the call because of the possibility of brownouts in May following the conflicting claims of the Department of Energy and private groups on the availability of power supply.

Energy officials on Monday informed Marcos that the agency’s projections based on a four-year record show that yellow or red alerts are unlikely in May, but a spike in demand may be seen two weeks after the elections.

However, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities predicts a 1,335-megawatt deficit in Luzon within the April-to-June period when power consumption reaches its peak.

“A fallback mechanism is urgent, besides just adjusting facility maintenance schedules. We can’t leave things to chance,” Marcos said.

She doubted that power supply could be augmented by the time elections take place because the DOE and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines have yet to finalize the terms of reference for contracting reserves.

To manage possible blackouts, Marcos urged the DOE to revisit its Interruptible Load Program which could ease the burden on electrical power grids during and after the May 9 elections.

“If electrical consumption reaches yellow or red alert status, the ILP can engage corporate customers of power distributors like Meralco to activate their generators for electrical demand downstream, instead of drawing supply from the power grids,” the senator said.

“The government must be clear on how the ILP can be implemented especially in election hotspots where local terrorist groups may try to sabotage the elections,” Marcos added.

Marcos said that harnessing wind, solar, and nuclear energy to augment power supply should be among the main concerns of the next administration.

“The building of more coal-fired power plants was suspended last year, but Ilocos Norte’s success with solar and wind farms has shown the way for renewable energy use on a national scale,” the former governor said.