Luzon and Visayas grids placed under yellow, red alert

Luzon and Visayas grids placed under yellow, red alert

MANILA, Philippines — National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) will place Luzon and Visayas grids under red and yellow alerts today, April 16, as several power plants are either offline or running at a reduced capacity.

In a statement sent to reporters, NGCP said a red alert will be raised in the Luzon grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The yellow alert, on the other hand, will be up from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

NGCP will also put the Visayas grid on yellow alert from 2  p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m.

A red alert status is issued when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

On the other hand, a yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. It does not necessarily lead to a power outage.

According to NGCP, 19 power plants in Luzon are on forced outage while three others are running on derated capacities; therefore, a power supply of 2,117.3 megawatts is unavailable to the grid.

READ: DOE: Power supply in Luzon, Mindanao sufficient; thin in Visayas

In the case of the Visayas, 12 power plants are on unscheduled shutdown while five others are operating on derated capacities. A total of 676.5 MW of electricity is unavailable to the Visayas grid.

NGCP said the peak demand in Luzon is 13,024 MW and the available capacity is 13,537 MW and in the Visayas, peak demand is pegged at 2,440 MW as opposed to the available capacity of 2,742 MW.