A YELLOW ALERT was declared on the Visayas grid on Tuesday after power reserves fell below required safety margins following the shutdown of several power plants and high electricity demand, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
In an advisory, the NGCP said it raised the yellow alert over the Visayas grid between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin falls below the transmission grid’s contingency requirement, narrowing the supply-demand buffer.
The NGCP said the yellow alert was triggered by the forced outages of three coal-fired power plants and high system demand.
Peak demand hit 2,512 megawatts (MW), against the available capacity of 2,684 MW.
A total of 833 MW was unavailable to the grid with 20 power plants on forced outage and nine running at derated capacities.
It was the third yellow alert raised over the Visayas grid this year.
Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin instructed Therma Visayas, Inc. Units 1 & 2, owned by Aboitiz Power Corp., and Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3 of Meralco PowerGen Corp., to immediately restore operations.
The Visayas Field Office of the Department of Energy (DoE) was instructed by Ms. Garin to immediately inspect the three power plants that went on forced outage and censure the generation companies undertake measures to bring the units back online safely and promptly.
“The DoE assured the public that it is conducting enhanced monitoring and coordinating with generation companies, the system operator, and other concerned stakeholders to support the timely restoration of affected units, maintain grid reliability, and minimize further disruption,” the department said in a statement.
It likewise directed the NGCP, generation companies, and system operators to facilitate the timely return of the affected units, stabilize available supply, and avert any prolonged impact on consumers. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
