NGCP: Luzon, Visayas grids under red alert

The tight power supply situation in the Luzon and Visayas power grids continues for the fourth straight day as both grids were placed under red alert on Friday afternoon until evening.

In an advisory, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said red alert will be hoisted over the Luzon grid from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In a separate advisory, the NGCP raised the power grid alert status in the Visayas to red from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The grid operator earlier placed the Visayas grid under yellow alert at 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“The Visayas grid was upgraded to red alert status due to higher forecasted demand in Visayas and Mindanao, resulting in less power shared by Mindanao through the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection,” the NGCP said.

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

The NGCP said the Luzon grid has an available capacity of 13,594 megawatts (MW) against an expected peak demand of 13,127 MW.

“Nineteen power plants are on forced outage, while three are running on derated capacities, for a total of 2,284.3 MW unavailable to the grid,” the NGCP said.

The Visayas grid, on the other hand, has an available capacity of 2,484 megawatts (MW) against an expected peak demand of 2,504 MW.

“Eighteen power plants are on forced outages, while 10 others are running on derated capacities, for a total of 757.7 MW unavailable to the grid,” the NGCP said. 

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has begun its preliminary investigation into the series of red and yellow alerts hoisted over Luzon and Visayas grids this week.

ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the power industry regulator  is still collating information from the various plants as well as from the NGCP. 

“After our initial evaluation, we can then decide if there is ground to formalize the investigation for purposes of determination of liabilities and imposition of penalties,” Dimalanta earlier said.

“We are still conducting our preliminary investigation and then will call on the plants and NGCP for vetting,” she added. —KBK, GMA Integrated News