The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said trading in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) was suspended yesterday as the Luzon and Visayas grids were placed on red and yellow alerts.
The alerts were raised after some of country’s biggest coal-fired power plants went on shutdown and deration yesterday.
The 647 megawatt (MW) unit 1 of the Sual plant in Pangasinan went on outage. The 647 MW unit 2 of Sual was derated to 550 MW while the 668 MW unit 1 GN Power Dinginin in Bataan only produced 600 MW.
ERC earlier issued an order suspending WESM trading during red alerts where an administered price shall apply. If a dispatch interval is subject to both a price mitigation such as the secondary price cap and the administered price, the lower of the two prices shall apply
in the settlement of transactions during intervals.
The suspension only applies to the bidding process of electricity sold at WESM as all generators are still mandated to offer their uncontracted available capacity in the market during red alerts.
Monalisa Dimalanta, ERC chair, said conditions set in the suspension order were met yesterday.
The Luzon and Visayas grids were again placed on red and yellow alerts as of 9 a.m. yesterday as 45 power plant units remained on either forced outage or de-rated with a total unavailable capacity of 3,078.6 megawatts (MW).
Yellow alert was raised in the Luzon Grid yesterday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 12 midnight. Red alert was declared from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. as 18 power plant units and three more with de-rated capacities resulted in the unavailability of 2,525.5 MW in the region.
Yellow alert was raised in the Visayas Grid from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Red alert was raised from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. as 21 power plant units were on forced outage and three more with de-rated capacities for a total lost capacity of 553.1 MW in the region.
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 13,531 MW compared to a peak demand of 13,597 MW. Available capacity in the Visayas Grid was only 2,5,88 MW against a peak demand of 2,537 MW.
NGCP said from January 1 to date, red alerts have been raised seven times in the Luzon Grid and eight times in Visayas. Yellow alerts for the period were raised 20 times in Luzon, 22 in Visayas and twice for Mindanao.
Meanwhile,Joe Zaldarriaga, Manila Electric Co. spokesperson and head of corporate communications, said as of 1 p.m. yesterday Interruptible Load Program (ILP) commitments were secured to help shed load from the grid.
“We have secured commitments from big-load customers under ILP participants to de-load more than 300 MW to help ease demand… We are also ready in the event the implementation of manual load dropping or rotating power interruptions will be needed as part of our responsibility to manage the system,” Zaldarriaga added.
Under ILP, customers with large electricity consumption are encouraged to run their own generator sets whenever supply of electricity in the grid is short in exchange for monetary incentives.
The Department of Energy (DOE) said it is closely monitoring and coordinating with the NGCP, the generation companies and the distribution utilities in ensuring the availability of power supply in view of the declaration of red and yellow alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grids yesterday.
The DOE said the tight power supply conditions have persisted due to the sustained high peak demands in both grids. Certain areas are seen to continue experiencing extreme temperatures and high heat indices.
The agency said with the projected heat index remaining elevated in select areas, peak demand will likely remain above forecasted levels throughout the remainder of May.
The agency said for Luzon, actual power interruptions lasted at most for one hour and 14 minutes on April 16 and not more than one hour and 18 minutes on April 23. The DOE noted power interruptions were shorter in most areas, adding that in Visayas and Mindanao, there were no power interruptions.
“Red and yellow alerts need not result in actual power interruptions if the power demand can be correspondingly reduced to respond to the decrease in power supply,” said DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla, in a statement.
