NGCP extends red alert in Luzon grid, yellow alert in Visayas

MANILA, Philippines — National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has extended the red alert status in Luzon and the yellow alert in the Visayas.

 NGCP, in an advisory, said the Luzon grid would remain under red alert up to 11 p.m. on Tuesday as two more power plants went on unscheduled shutdown.

In an earlier statement, NGCP  said a red alert would be raised in the Luzon grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and again from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The latest advisory showed the red alert status would remain from 4 p.m. up to 11 p.m.

Manual load dropping or rotational power interruptions were implemented starting at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday affecting parts of northern Luzon.

NGCP also extended the yellow alert status in the Visayas “due to generation deficiency.”

The Visayas grid will remain under yellow alert up to 9 p.m.  The earlier schedule was only up to 7 p.m.

READ: Luzon and Visayas grids placed under yellow, red alert

A red alert status is issued when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

Conversely, a yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. It does not necessarily result in a power outage.

According to NGCP, 19 power plants in Luzon are on forced outage while three others are running on derated capacities; therefore, a power supply of 2,117.3 megawatts is unavailable to the grid.

READ: DOE: Power supply in Luzon, Mindanao sufficient; thin in Visayas

In the Visayas, 12 power plants are on unscheduled shutdown while five others are operating on derated capacities. A total of 676.5 MW of electricity is unavailable to the Visayas grid.

NGCP said the peak demand in Luzon is 13,024 MW while the available capacity is 13,537 MW. In the Visayas, peak demand is pegged at 2,440 MW as opposed to the available capacity of 2,742 MW.