THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Friday issued red and yellow alerts for the Visayas grid amid a power supply shortfall. A yellow alert for Mindanao was lifted at 1 p.m. after some power plants resumed operations.
The Visayas grid was placed on red alert from 5 to 6 p.m., and yellow alert from 4 to 5 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m.
Peak demand was projected to reach 2,558 megawatts (MW), exceeding available capacity of 2,407 MW by 151 MW.
A red alert means supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the grid’s regulating requirement. A yellow alert means operating reserves are insufficient to cover a potential power plant or transmission outage.
NGCP said 23 plants in the Visayas were on forced outage, while 19 were operating below capacity, leaving 606.6 MW unavailable to the grid.
It attributed the alerts mainly to the continued shutdown of Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3 and Kepco SPC Power Corp. Unit 1, along with limited power imports from Mindanao, where scheduled and unplanned plant outages also constrained supply.
Mindanao’s yellow alert had been scheduled for 5 to 6 p.m. before it was lifted.
NGCP initially reported that 21 plants in Mindanao were on forced outage and three were operating below capacity, leaving 474.9 MW unavailable.
The company attributed the supply constraints mainly to the unplanned outages of Therma South Inc. (TSI) Unit 1 and Pulangi 4 Unit 2, which coincided with scheduled shutdowns of GNPower Kauswagan Ltd. Co. Unit 4 and TSI Unit 2.
