Luzon grid under yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon

The Luzon power grid will be placed under yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon until evening due to a forced outage of a plant that resulted in thinning reserve, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

In an advisory, the NGCP said the yellow alert would be implemented from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

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

It does not necessarily lead to  power interruptions.

The Luzon grid’s available capacity stands at 13,198 megawatts (MW) against an expected peak demand of 12,028 MW.

The NGCP citied the tripping of San Gabriel power plant, with a 417.4-MW capacity, as a factor that contributed to the raising of yellow alert.

Moreover, the grid operator said one plant has been on forced outage since 2023, eight between January and May 2024, and six power plants between June and July 2024; while six are running on derated capacities “for a total of 1,652.7 MW unavailable to the grid.”

Meanwhile, the Visayas and Mindanao grids are under normal condition.

During the dry hot months - April until early June this year - enhanced by El Niño, the NGCP has raised 11 red alerts and 31 yellow alerts in the Luzon grid.

Likewise, eight red and 26 yellow alerts were hoisted over the Visayas grid.

Zero red alerts and only two yellow alerts were raised in the Mindanao grid. --VAL, GMA Integrated News