Luzon Grid on red, yellow alerts anew –NGCP

The Luzon Grid will again be placed under red and yellow alerts on Tuesday as some of its power plants are still on forced outages or running on derated capacities, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said. 

As of 9 a.m., NGCP said that the Luzon Grid will be on the following alerts as it has a total of 3,963.3 megawatts unavailable to the grid:

Red Alert

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Yellow Alert

1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

The Luzon Grid has an available capacity of 12,669 megawatts, with a peak demand of 12,228 megawatts. 

Three of its power plants have been on forced outages since 2023, three between January and March 2024, and 12 others between April and May 2024. There are 10 plants also running on derated capacities.

According to the NGCP, among the factors that contributed to the raising of alerts was the forced outage of the Ilijan (600MW), Pagbilao 1 (382MW), 2 (382MW), & 3 (420MW), and the QPPL (460MW) power plants. 

There was also an emergency shutdown of San Lorenzo 50 (265MW), and the deration of the Sual 1, Sual 2, Limay 4, Limay 8 power plants. 

For its part, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said it has already started coordinating with customers enrolled under the interruptible load program (ILP) for their de-loading commitments.

“With the Luzon Grid still on Red Alert today, we are still ready to implement MLD (manual load dropping) if needed as part of our responsibility to manage the system,” spokesperson and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said in a separate statement.

Meanwhile, Meralco also said rotational power interruptions affected around 100,000 customers from Bulacan on Monday.

Visayas Grid

The Visayas Grid, meanwhile, will also be placed under yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday “due to unavailability of Luzon to export to Visayas and high forecasted demand.”

As of 9 a.m., the grid was reported to have an available capacity of 2,904 megawatts versus a peak demand of 2,532 megawatts, with a total of 587.1 megawatts unavailable to the grid.

One power plant has been on forced outage since 2022, two since 2023, one between January and March 2024, and 17 others between April and May 2024. 

Four of its plants were also running on derated capacities.

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. 

On the other hand, a red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement. —VAL, GMA Integrated News