Luzon grid on alert over thin reserves

MANILA, Philippines - The Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert yesterday due to thin power reserves as several big plants tripped over the weekend.

A yellow alert means power reserves are below the minimum level set by the regulator. In Luzon, the minimum is 647 megawatts (MW), which is equivalent to the capacity of a unit of Sual plant, the region’s largest.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon grid on alert from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as the available capacity was only 9,649 MW when peak demand was expected to reach 9,247 MW.

Four power plants went on forced outage over the weekend, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) senior vice president and head of utility economics Larry Fernandez told The STAR in a text message.

“Reserves are below the 647 MW required to remain at normal status, mainly because of the forced outage of several big power plants... such as Calaca, GN Power, Quezon Power and Sual,” Fernandez said.

Only GN Power went back online early yesterday.

Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said the Luzon grid lost over 1,000 MW from the three plants that were still out.

Irma Exconde, Department of Energy director, said the government has started running Unit 2 of the Malaya power plant in Rizal to mitigate power interruption.

To minimize load factor in its franchise area, Meralco also started advising Interruptible Load Program participants “to prepare for possible activation.”

The grid situation was expected to normalize last night as Quezon Power was scheduled to go back online.