Luzon, Visayas power grids under red, yellow alert

MANILA, Philippines — For the fourth consecutive day, the Luzon and Visayas power grids were placed on red and yellow alerts on Friday, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

According to the NGCP advisory posted on Facebook, the Luzon grid was under red alert from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday. Yellow alert was raised from noon to 3 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Available capacity was 13,594 megawatts, amid peak demand recorded at 13,127 MW.

A total of 19 power plants are on forced outage, while three are running on derated capacities, for a total of 2,284.3MW unavailable to the grid.

In the Visayas grid, yellow alert was raised from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. and red alert from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. The available capacity was recorded at 2,484 MW while peak demand was 2,504 MW.

“A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement. A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement,” the NGCP explained.

Placing both Luzon and Visayas grids on red and yellow alert on Friday caused market prices to increase, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).

As of Thursday, market price for Luzon went up to P13.39 per kilowatt-hour, from Tuesday’s P5.55 per kwh.

Meanwhile, market price for the Visayas went up to P14.64 per kwh on Thursday, from P5.73 per kwh last Tuesday.

IEMOP noted that these prices are still subject to pricing validations, which will take place by the end of the current Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) billing month.

More power plants

The country needs more power plants in the future to avoid grids being placed on red and yellow alert, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.

The forced outage of several power plants since Tuesday has led to the Luzon and Visayas grids being placed on red and yellow alert.

“These are all important elements. If there are delays in these, it is we who suffer,” Lotilla said at a Friday press briefing.

Meanwhile, Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA) president Anne Montelibano echoed the same sentiment.

However, one of the reasons why power plants are slowly developing in the country is attributed to delays with permits and other matters like right of way issues, other permits, approval of contracts, among others, Lotilla and Montelibano said.

Lotilla also cited opposition to the development of liquefied natural gas plants and renewable energy plants, and completion of transmission lines.

In an earlier report by The STAR, the Department of Energy said power supply in all grids is sufficient for the warm or dry season, stating that “there is no power crisis in the Philippines.”

“One has to assume that power plants that are not scheduled for maintenance will be online,” Lotilla said.

According to the PIPPA president, the power plants that suffered forced outage this week were mostly hydropower, which normally shut down during the dry season due to low water levels.

Two power plants in Luzon – the Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. and Sta. Rita – are back online.

Despite the recent forced outages, Lotilla said the power situation has yet to reach the worst-case scenario.

He explained that the interruptible load program will “fix” the issue, and if the program would not be enough, then a manual load dropping (MLD) would be implemented.

Meralco has de-loaded about 400 megawatts in response to the lack of power supply in the grid after Meralco secured more than 100 ILP commitments, specifically big-load consumers.

No MLD took place in the Meralco franchise areas.

However, rotational power interruptions took place in other provinces. — Nillicent Bautista