LUZON and Visayas grids were placed again on yellow and red alerts as of 8 a.m. yesterday after 50 power plant units were either on forced outage or de-rated with a total capacity of 3,744.7 megawatts (MW).
Red alert was raised in the Luzon Grid yesterday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. as 16 power plant units were on shutdown with six more units suffering de-rated capacities for a total of 3,177.3 MW unavailable power in the region.
Yellow alert was raised in the Visayas Grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. as 18 power plant units were on shutdown with 10 more units de-rated for a total of 567.4 MW worth of electricity not available for delivery.
The yellow alert in Visayas was lifted at 1 p.m. due to the decrease in forecasted demand.
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, the alerts were raised as available capacity in the Luzon Grid was only at 12,680 MW compared to a peak demand of 12,430 MW. In the Visayas Grid, available capacity was only 2,890 MW against a peak demand of 2,538 MW.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it did not resort to any manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational power interruptions on Tuesday when the Luzon grid was placed onred alert.
The company said its commercial and industrial customers collectively de-loaded around 270 MW that helped in averting service disruptions.
Meralco also said electricity service in areas affected by Typhoon Aghon returned to normal following the restoration of all circuits and primary lines with almost 100 percent service back in all affected areas.
Meralco said most affected customers because of Typhoon Aghon are in Quezon and Laguna, while the rest are in parts of Batangas, Cavite, Metro Manila, Rizal and Bulacan.
Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. said indigenous natural gas demonstrated anew its reliability and resilience in times of natural disasters as Typhoon Aghon caused a substantial decrease in available power supply.
Prime Infra said the Malampaya gas field powering 20 percent of Luzon, remained 100 percent available to supply gas-fired power plants on demand during the onslaught of Typhoon Aghon.
According to the Department of Energy, several base load power plants were forced to shut down due to inability to operate under inclement weather as their floating storage units needed to be unberthed and relocated for safety reasons at the height of the typhoon.
The agency said several coal-fired power plants with a total of 1,995 MW were also shut down due to the typhoon.
