Visayas grid to be placed on yellow alert

The Visayas grid will be placed on yellow alert on Thursday afternoon due to a low power supply, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

NGCP said the yellow alert will start at 1 p.m. and will remain until 1 p.m.

The Visayas grid has an available capacity of 2,662MW, and has a peak demand of 2,465MW. This, as

13 power plants are currently on forced outage while 9 are running on derated capacities.

Meanwhile, the Luzon grid will continue to be placed under red and yellow alerts on Thursday afternoon until evening. 

Here is the schedule:

Red alert

3:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m.

8:00p.m.- 10:00p.m.

Yellow alert

1:00p.m.- 3:00p.m.

4:00p.m.- 8:00p.m.

10:00p.m.- 11:00p.m.

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

Luzon grid has an available capacity of 13,397MW, and a peak demand of 12,892MW. 

NGCP said that 19 of its power plants are currently on forced outage while one is running on derated capacity for a total of 1,891.3MW unavailable to the grid.

Power outage

Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan explained that the grids being placed on yellow or red alerts doesn’t automatically mean that power outages will occur. 

“Kapag tayo ay nasa yellow alert, kung meron pang isang planta na malaki na nag-outage, magkakaron ng posibilidad na rotational brownout,” he said in an Unang Balita interview. 

(When there’s a yellow alert, there will be a possibility of a rotational brownout in case one more big plant has an outage.)

“Pero kapag nakarating na tayo ng red alert, kailangan na tayong mag-implement ng mitigating measures dahil malaki ang posibilidad na magkaron tayo ng mga rotational brownout,” he added. 

(But when we reach a red alert, we already need to implement mitigating measures because there is a high possibility that we will have rotational brownouts.) 

Marasigan said the DOE expects the affected power plants to be repaired by Saturday, April 20. 

“Nakikita natin na mag-umpisa ng April 20, makakabalik na po, mag-umpisa nang makabalik ang ating mga planta sa operation kung kaya’t mawawala na ang ating mga alert levels at ‘yan ang inaasahan natin over the weekend,” he said. 

(Starting April 20, we expect that the affected power plants will get back to operation, that’s why there will no longer be alert levels. We expect that over the weekend.) 

Earlier this month, the DOE said the power sector is implementing measures to avoid possible power interruptions amid the impact of the El Niño phenomenon and dry season on the country. —Giselle Ombay/ VAL, GMA Integrated News