Luzon and Visayas grids were again placed on yellow alert as of 8:30 a.m. yesterday as 45 power plant units were on either forced outage or were de-rated with a total unavailable capacity of 2,589.9 megawatts (MW).
Meanwhile, initial average price of electricity in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the country in May increased, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
Yellow alert was raised in the Luzon Grid yesterday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. as 18 power plant units and six more with de-rated capacities resulted in the unavailability of 2,075.8 MW in the region. The same alert level was raised in the Visayas Grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. as 16 power plant units were on forced outage and five more with de-rated capacities for a total lost capacity of 514.1 MW.
Yellow alerts are issued when the level of power reserve in the grid is low and power interruptions are not yet imminent.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the alerts were raised as available capacity in the Luzon Grid was only at 14,687 MW compared to a peak demand of 13,507 MW. Available capacity in the Visayas Grid was 2,933 MW against a peak demand of 2,614 MW.
Based on data from IEMOP, the increase in average spot market power rates was mainly due to lower power margins amid higher demand.
As of May 19, average price per kilowatt hour (kWh) in WESM was at P7.85 which is 13.8 percent higher than the P6.90 per kWh in April.
IEMOP said total average demand in the country went up 8.9 percent to 15,651 megawatts (MW) from 14,376 MW as average supply increased by 3.06 percent to 19,786 MW from 19,199 MW pulling down power margin by 19.3 percent to 2,966 MW from 3,677 MW.
