Luzon Grid on red, yellow alerts anew on Wednesday –NGCP

The Luzon Grid will again be placed under red and yellow alerts on Wednesday 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. 

In an advisory, the NGCP said the Luzon Grid will be on the following alerts as it has a total of 3,177.3 megawatts (MW) unavailable to the grid::

Red Alert

• 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

 Yellow Alert

• 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
• 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

The Luzon Grid has an available capacity of 12,680 megawatts with a peak demand of 12,430 megawatts, the NGCP said. Two of its plants have been on forced outage since 2023, three between January and March 2024, and 11 between April and May 2024. Six, meanwhile, are running on derated capacities.

According to the NGCP, among the factors that contributed to the raising of alerts was
the forced outage of Pagbilao 1 (382MW), 2 (382MW), & 3 (420MW), QPPL (460MW), San Lorenzo 50 (265MW), and Limay 7 (70MW) power plants.

There was also a deration of the Sual 1, Sual 2, and Limay 8 power plants.

A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement, while a yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. 

Visayas Grid

The Visayas Grid, meanwhile, will also be placed under yellow alert on the following hours: 

2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Visayas Grid was reported to have an available capacity of 2,890 MW versus a peak demand of 2,538 MW.

According to the NGCP, one plant has been on forced outage since 2022, two since 2023, one between January and March 2024, and 14 between April and May 2024; while 10 are running on derated capacities "for a total of 567.4MW unavailable to the grid."  —KBK, GMA Integrated News