MANILA, Philippines — The Luzon grid will again be placed under red and yellow alerts on Tuesday, May 28, while the Visayas grid will be issued a yellow alert on the same day, said National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
According to NGCP’s advisory, red alert will be up in the Luzon grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The grid will be under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
NGCP issues a red alert status when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.
Meanwhile, a yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is not enough to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
READ: Grids on constant red, yellow alerts show need for increased capacity — solon
Current available capacity in the Luzon grid is 12,669 megawatts, while peak demand is 12,228 megawatts.
A total of 3,963.3 megawatts are currently unavailable to the grid as 18 power plants are currently on forced outage — three of which since 2023, three since between January and March 2024, and 12 since between April and May 2024.
Meanwhile, 10 other plants are running on derated capacities.
The NGCP also explained that several factors caused the raising of yellow alert, particularly, the forced outage of power plants: Ilijan, Pagbilao 1, 2, and 3, as well as QPP; emergency shutdown of San Lorenzo 50, and the deration of plants Sual 1, 2, Limay 4 and 8.
There is also currently high forecast demand in Luzon, NGCP said.
Visayas grid
Meanwhile, the Visayas grid will be placed under yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
Current available capacity in the area, said the NGCP, is 2,904 megawatts, with the peak demand at 2,532 megawatts.
READ: House probe sought on power grid’s frequent yellow, red alerts
“The yellow alert is due to the unavailability of Luzon to export to Visayas and high projected demand,” said the NGCP.
Twenty-one power plants in the Visayas are currently on forced outage — one since 2022, two since 2023, one between January and March 2024, and 17 between April and May 2024.
Four are currently running on derated capacities.
Due to this, 587.1 megawatts are currently unavailable to the grid.