THE Visayas power grid was placed under red and yellow alerts on Thursday as power plant outages and reduced output tightened supply, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
A red alert means power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the grid’s regulating requirement. A yellow alert means the operating margin is insufficient to cover the grid’s contingency requirement.
In its 8 a.m. advisory, NGCP scheduled a red alert from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by a yellow alert from 6 to 7 p.m. Available capacity stood at 2,608 megawatts (MW), against projected peak demand of 2,581 MW.
A total of 21 plants were on forced outage, while another 21 were operating at reduced capacity, leaving 599.1 MW unavailable to the grid.
NGCP said Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3 and Kepco SPC Power Corp. Unit 1 remained unavailable.
Power imports from Mindanao were also limited by the planned outages of GNPower Kauswagan Unit 4 and Therma South Inc. Unit 2, and the unplanned outage of Pulangi IV Unit 2.
Meanwhile, NGCP placed the Mindanao grid under a yellow alert from 5 to 6 p.m., according to its 3 p.m. advisory.
Available capacity stood at 2,795 MW, against projected peak demand of 2,587 MW. Twenty-one plants were on forced outage and four were operating at reduced capacity, leaving 525.6 MW unavailable.
NGCP attributed the tight supply partly to the planned shutdowns of GNPower Kauswagan Unit 4 and Therma South Unit 2, as well as the unplanned outages of Therma South Unit 1 and Pulangi IV Unit 2.
