Luzon grid sees first yellow alert

THE Luzon grid has recorded its first yellow alert this year following the outage of a major gas-fired power plant and some hydropower plants, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

In an advisory on Thursday, NGCP said it has placed the Luzon grid under yellow alert from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Peak demand hit 11,966 megawatts (MW) while the available capacity was at 12,223 MW.

A total of 5,137.2 MW was unavailable to the grid after 35 plants went on forced outage while 14 were running on derated capacities.

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

NGCP attributed the raising of yellow alert to the tripping of two major gas plants in Batangas, as well as the unavailability of hydroelectric power plants in Magat, Isabela.

The outage has triggered Manila Electric Co. to implement automatic load dropping that lasted for 10-15 minutes within its franchise areas.

Power supply was restored in all affected areas at 3:01 p.m.

A yellow alert was also raised over the Visayas grid from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. due to the lack of power imported from Luzon.

The grid’s available capacity was at 2,597 MW, nearly outpacing the demand of 2,368 MW. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera