RED and yellow alerts were raised on Tuesday over the Luzon grid, with a yellow alert also declared for the Visayas grid, as the operating margins remained insufficient to meet the grids’ energy requirements, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
In an advisory, the NGCP said that the Luzon grid was on red alert between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
It was also placed under yellow alert between 12 noon and 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., and 9 p.m. and 12 midnight.
The grid operator said that the available capacity was 13,277 megawatts (MW) while peak demand was 12,869 MW.
Yellow alerts are issued when the supply available to the grid falls below a designated safety threshold. If the supply-demand balance deteriorates further, a red alert is declared.
A total of 18 power plants are on forced outage while 10 are running derated, making 3,963.3 MW unavailable to the grid.
Meanwhile, the Visayas grid was on yellow alert between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
The grid’s peak demand was 2,527 MW, against available capacity of 2,885 MW.
During the period, a total of 21 power plants were on forced outage, with four at limited capacity. A total of 587.1 MW were unavailable to the grid.
In a briefing on Monday, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina L. Guevara said that red alerts may continue until next week if the power plants that experienced forced outage or derated capacities fail to resume operations.
The Department of Energy is expecting 4,000 MW of energy projects to come online this year, including 2,000 MW from conventional plants and 2,000 MW from renewables. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
