MANILA, Philippines — The power supply nationwide is running low prompting grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to place all regions—Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao—under red or yellow alerts today, April 24.
In an advisory, NGCP issued a red alert in the Luzon grid between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. It will place the country’s largest island under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
NGCP said a red alert status will be up in the Visayas grid from 12 noon to 5 p.m.
A yellow alert will be raised in the Visayas from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., and from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For the first time this year, NGCP issued a yellow alert in Mindanao from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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NGCP issues a red alert when the power supply is insufficient to meet the consumer demand. This can lead to power interruptions.
On the other hand, a yellow alert is raised when the operating margin is insufficient.
Plants on forced outage
NGCP made the issuances to all power grids as several power plants are offline, with some of them unavailable since last year.
In Luzon, four power plants have been on forced outage since 2023, and four others between January and March this year.
It also said 12 power plants are offline this month while two others are running on reduced capacities. As a result, the grid lost 1,840.3 megawatts of supply.
The available capacity in Luzon is 14,241 megawatts while the demand is estimated to peak at 13,643MW.
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NGCP said in the Visayas, one plant has been on forced outage since 2022, two facilities since 2023, two plants between January and March this year, and 15 since April.
Also, eight power plants are running on derated capacities, wiping out 621.6 MW of supply to the grid.
“The reduced capacity exported by Mindanao to Visayas also aggravated the power situation in Visayas,” the grid operator said.
The available capacity in Visayas is 2,462 MW and peak demand is pegged at 2,525MW.
In the case of Mindanao, nine plants have been in forced outage since April while five others reduced their output. Hence, a total of 673.98 MW is unavailable to the grid.