The Luzon and Visayas grids were placed under yellow and red alerts yesterday after 39 power plant units went on forced outage or were de-rated, displacing a total capacity of 2,793.8 megawatts (MW).
The Department of Energy (DOE) said it is is closely coordinating with all power stakeholders to ensure appropriate measures are taken to minimize the impact of the power reserves shortage.
“While we continue to monitor and ask our power plant operators to work on restoring full operations, we can maximize our energy efficiency efforts as we go through this period of extreme heat. Flexible work arrangements and other conservation measures would also be helpful. The extremely high temperatures have been affecting the operations of power plants in the grid,” said DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla.
A red alert was raised in the Luzon Grid yesterday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. as 19 power plant units with a total capacity of 1,811.3 MW were on forced outage and three more with de-rated capacities of 306 MW in the region.
A yellow alert was raised in the Visayas Grid from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. as 12 power plant units with a total capacity of 414.9 MW were on forced outage and five more with de-rated capacities of 261.6 MW.
Yellow alerts are issued when the level of power reserve in the grid is low while red alerts are declared when actual power supply against demand is insufficient and power interruptions are imminent.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the alerts were raised as available capacity in the Luzon Grid was only at 13,537 MW compared to a peak demand of 13,024 MW.
Available capacity in the Visayas Grid was only 2,742 MW against a peak demand of 2,440 MW.
NGCP said as a consequence, manual load dropping (MLD) were implemented in parts of Baguio City, Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Nueva Ecija and Aurora province.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it did not resort to any MLD or rotating power interruptions as of 4 p.m. yesterday, partly due to the de-loading of around 300 MW under the interruptible load program (ILP).
Under the ILP, customers with large electricity consumption run their own generator sets whenever supply of electricity in the grid is short.
