Insufficient power supply: Luzon, Visayas grids on yellow alert anew

MANILA, Philippines — The Luzon and Visayas grids were placed under yellow alert yesterday as power supply thinned due to plant outages.

The Luzon grid was under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. after available capacity was estimated to be insufficient to meet the grid’s contingency requirement.

As of yesterday morning, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) estimated available capacity in the Luzon grid at 14,818 megawatts compared to the peak demand of 13,628 MW.

The NGCP said 14 power plants in Luzon were on forced outages while six other plants were running on derated capacities, resulting in an unavailable supply of 1,911.3 MW.

Three plants in Luzon have been on forced outage since 2023, four from January to March and 11 between April and May, according to the NGCP.

The Visayas grid was on yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. after the NGCP extended the alert for four more hours.

In its initial advisory, the yellow alert on the Visayas grid was from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The NGCP said available capacity in the Visayas grid stood at 2,946 MW.

The peak demand was at 2,652 MW.

At least 19 power plants in the Visayas grid have been on forced outages while five other plants were running on derated capacities.

The NGCP said one plant has been on forced outage since 2022, two since 2023, two from January and March and 14 in April and May.

A total of 532.1 MW was unavailable to the Visayas grid yesterday.