‘Yellow alert’ returns in Luzon power grid

The Luzon power grid was placed under yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon and evening due to meager reserves, after more than a month of no alerts.

In a yellow alert, power supply can still meet demand, but it will serve as a warning that when a plant breaks down one way or another, it will result in brownouts. A red alert, meanwhile, means that supply is no longer sufficient to meet demand. Brownouts could happen if demand is not managed.

READ: Luzon grid under yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon, evening

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) had announced the yellow alert to be in place 3 pm to 9 pm, but this was lifted at 4 pm. The NGCP said the disconnection from the grid of the 417.4-megawatt (MW) San Gabriel gas-fired power plant contributed to the raising of the alert.

The system operator said the Luzon grid’s available capacity on Wednesday was 13,198 MW while peak demand reached 12,028 MW.

Plant outage

Meanwhile, the Visayas and Mindanao grid were running under normal conditions.

According to the NGCP, one power plant has been on forced outage since 2023 and six facilities between June and July of this year. Six more power plants were operating on “derated capacities.”

READ: Meralco rates higher by P2 per kWh in July

“A total of 1,652.7 MW [is] unavailable to the grid,” the company said.

In a separate statement, distribution giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it was monitoring the situation.

“We urge the public to implement energy conservation and efficiency practices to help manage the overall demand. We will give updates as soon as needed,” Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said.

Incoming

For its part, the Department of Energy said it was also coordinating with the NGCP and the power generation companies to manage the demand.

To recall, the NGCP placed Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao grids under red or yellow alerts numerous times during the summer months because of heat waves attributed to El Niño.

Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara earlier said consumers can expect a “better” summer in 2025 as more capacity is expected to be available to the grid.

“Fortunately, this year, we have 4,000 megawatts of incoming power [capacity] … So for summer, we can see that 2025 summer will be much, much better than 2024,” she said. INQ