THE National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said it met with the Department of Energy (DOE) on Tuesday to adjust projections for this year’s power supply-and-demand as an early onset of hot weather conditions has prompted a yellow alert.
NGCP said hot weather conditions on March 5 caused a spike in demand and coupled with unplanned outages and deration that made 3,362.3 MW worth of capacity unavailable, led to the raising of a yellow alert from 5 pm to 7 pm on that day.
The company said the power situation did not escalate into a red alert, and the yellow alert was lifted by 7:49 pm on the same day. Yellow alerts are issued when the level of power reserve in the grid is low, and red alerts when actual power supply against demand is insufficient and power interruptions are imminent.
“We’re still in the process of assessing and adjusting (the projections) as we saw a sudden spike in temperature last March 5,” NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza told reporters in a briefing in San Juan city on Wednesday.
She added that a meeting with power generating companies to discuss the issue is also scheduled for next week.
The highest peak demand for 2025 so far was recorded on March 6 at 12,467 MW, higher by 5 percent than the DOE-approved grid operating program forecast demand of 11,870 MW for that day, NGCP said.
Peak demand
For this year, the DOE forecasts peak demand at: *14,769 MW for Luzon or 5.37 percent up from the 2024 actual peak of 14,016 MW on April 24, 2024; *3,111 MW for Visayas or 16.02 percent more than the 2,681 MW actual peak on May 21, 2024; and *2,789 MW for Mindanao or 8.23 percent above the 2,577 MW peak on May 22, 2024.
“As in the past years, NGCP cautions the public that while power supply seems sufficient on paper, over the years, unplanned outages of critical plants are a major factor in the power situation and have been the primary cause of power interruptions,” the company said.
It also said while NGCP complied with the DOE directive on the procurement of ancillary services (AS) through competitive selection process and payment through the AS Reserve Market, unplanned power plant outages cause all power dispatched through the transmission system to be used for energy consumption.
“A shortfall in supply, should that occur, means that while all available generators are running, including those contracted by NGCP for ancillary services, the existing supply is still insufficient to meet demand,” it said.
Given that, NGCP reiterates the need for the country to have more non-intermittent baseload power sources to ensure the stability of power supply.
Currently, among the ones considered non-intermittent baseload power sources are those utilizing coal, natural gas and geothermal technologies.
NGCP said that as the country’s transmission service provider and grid operator, it can only provide an overview of the current supply-and-demand situation and dispatch any and all available power, especially since the Electric Power Industry Reform Act prohibits the company from owning or operating power generating facilities.
