THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on May 15 again issued yellow and red alerts for the Luzon and Visayas electricity grids as repair and restoration efforts continue in affected power infrastructure.
Yellow alerts mean power reserves are low, while red alerts indicate insufficient supply which can lead to rotational brownouts.
A yellow alert for Luzon was issued between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. and also between 11:00 and 11:59 p.m., and a red alert between 2:00 and 11:00 p.m. NGCP said that peak electricity demand reached 13,881 megawatts (MW), but available supply was 13,508 MW.
Some 30 plants were on forced outage, while 14 plants were running on lower capacities, for a total of 4,160MW unavailable to the grid.
On its restoration efforts, NGCP said the Tayabas-Ilijan 500 kilovolt (kV) and Dasmariñas-Ilijan 500 kV transmission lines were back in power on May 13 at 2:44 p.m. and 4:52 p.m., respectively, and are waiting for the affected plants to resynchronize back to the grid.
In the Visayas grid, a yellow alert was issued between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m., and between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
Likewise issued was a red alert between 3:00 and 10:00 p.m. as peak demand reached 2,661 MW, but available capacity supply was only 2,441 MW.
A total of 25 plants in the Visayas were on forced outage, while 11 were running on lower capacities, for a total of 841.3MW unavailable to the grid. Restoration efforts are ongoing, the NGCP said.
The Visayas was also on red alert due to low capacity and inability to access power from Luzon.
The NGCP likewise implemented manual load dropping (MLD), or rotating brownouts, in several areas in Luzon and the Visayas on May 15.
Brownouts occurred in some parts of Metro Manila, La Union, Pampanga, Zambales, Batangas, Albay, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Abra, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Quezon, and Tarlac.
Those without power in the Visayas were some areas of Cebu, Aklan, Negros, Iloilo, Capiz, Antique, Guimaras, Leyte, Samar, and Bohol. Ed Paolo Salting
