Luzon Grid under yellow alert on Saturday evening —NGCP

The Luzon Grid will be placed under yellow alert from Saturday evening as some of its power plants have been on forced outage and running on derated capacities, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

In an advisory, the NGCP said the yellow alert would be implemented from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., indicating that the operating margin is not enough to meet the transmission grid's contingency requirement.

The grid's available capacity is at 13,497 megawatts (MW), but the peak demand will reach 12,278 MW.

“2 plants have been on forced outage since 2023, 3 between January and March 2024, and 13 power plants between April and May 2024; while 8 are running on derated capacities, for a total of 3,482.3MW unavailable to the grid,” the NGCP said.

The agency also cited other factors that placed Luzon’s power transmission under yellow alert:

• Deration of Sual 1 from 647MW to 300MW
• Forced outage of the following plants: Kalayaan 1 (180MW), 3 (180MW),  Angat Main (200MW), QPPL (460MW), Pagbilao 1 (382MW), and 2 (382MW)

The grid operator, however, assured the public that the Visayas and Mindanao grids are operating under normal conditions.

In an update posted on Saturday afternoon, NGCP said the red alert would be implemented from 1 p.m. Saturday to 12 a.m. Sunday.

The grid's available capacity is at 12,706 megawatts (MW), but the peak demand will reach 11,955 MW. 

 “The raising of red and yellow alert intervals is due to the outage of Ilijan Block A & B (1,200 megawatts),” NGCP said. 

In an update on Sunday morning, the NGCP said it has lifted the red alert for Luzon Grid at 12:35 a.m.

The Luzon Grid was then placed on yellow alert from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, but this status was lifted at 2:07 a.m.

A red alert status is issued when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulatory requirements. 

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. —Vince Angelo Ferreras with Sherylin Untalan/KG/ VAL, GMA Integrated News