Luzon, Visayas on yellow alert on April 26

MANILA, Philippines — Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) hoisted a yellow alert in Luzon and Visayas due to a thin power supply caused by the unavailability of many power plants.

In an advisory, NGCP said a yellow alert will be raised in the Luzon grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. today, April 26.

It also said a yellow alert will be issued in Visayas from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

NGCP explained a yellow alert is raised when the operating margin is insufficient but this does not necessarily lead to power interruptions.

In the case of Luzon, the operating margin should be equivalent to 668 megawatts or the capacity of the largest power plant in the region.

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The Department of Energy (DOE) said on Thursday the “persistent” high temperature breached its previous forecast on electricity demand, with the peak in electricity demand in Luzon seen surpassing the 14,000-megawatt level.

The agency described the power situation in the Philippines as a “challenge” and a “calamity” yet stopped short of saying a “crisis” has befallen the nation.

Power situation a ‘challenge’ and ‘calamity’

In a virtual briefing, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said red and yellow alerts might be raised in parts of the country if more power plants become unavailable during those periods.

“What we expect is that in the next few weeks until the middle of May, we are going to have yellow alerts and possibly red alerts in some areas,” Guevara said.

READ: DOE to public: Reduce power consumption during peak hours

“If none of our plants are going to go offline, then perhaps it’s just a yellow alert but as you’ve noticed in the last week, for example, several plants went offline, and that resulted in having red alerts. That one we cannot predict,” she said.

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla did not categorically answer when asked if the country is already in a crisis following the issuances of red and yellow alert notices this month but said this scenario trickled down to other essential economic sectors such as agriculture, health, and education.

“Well… it remains a challenge, right? And if we look at the impact of the El Niño and the El Niño phenomenon has created problems not only in the energy sector but in the agriculture sector, in water, in health, education, and so on,” Lotilla said.

Generation capacity

“These are indications of a natural calamity and therefore, the local government units have already, in many areas of the country, already declared such. So, we are recognizing that as a fact,” he said.

Lotilla said, “It’s a calamity and we are adjusting, we are responding to it as needed.”

READ: Luzon placed under red alert for four hours

Power plants in Luzon still have an available capacity of 14,535 MW, still enough to cover the peak demand of 13,751 MW.

The Visayas power grid also has an available capacity of 2,791MW, which remains adequate to sustain the peak demand of 2,530MW.

In Luzon, 22 power grids have been on forced outage, with two others running on derated capacity, resulting in a 1,512.7 MW supply loss.

In the Visayas, 19 plants have been on a forced outage, while eight are running on reducing capacity, resulting in a 604.1MW loss in supply.