Several power plants in the Luzon Grid went on unscheduled outages and deratings Wednesday and forced the government to issue a red alert notice just days after the Department of Energy (DOE) warned of thinning power supply reserves.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), 1,354 megawatts (MW) were unavailable in the Luzon grid as three power plants went on unscheduled outages while two more ran on derated capacity.
The NGCP said the available capacity in the Luzon grid totaled only 12,186 megawatts (MW) against a peak demand reaching 12,468 MW.
NGCP placed the Luzon grid yesterday on red alert from 1 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. and on yellow alert from 4 to 6 p.m. the same day.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is closely coordinating this development with NGCP and the various generation companies.
The DOE said the Luzon grid went on alert when both Line 2 of the 230-kilovolt Bolo-Masinloc and units 1 and 2 of the Masinloc coal-fired power plant tripped for a total of 618 MW.
The reduced supply in Luzon affected the power export to the Visayas grid, resulting in the declaration of a one-hour yellow alert notice.
“Meanwhile, following the declaration of red and yellow alerts in the Luzon grid, the NGCP as the system operator declared a suspension of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the Luzon Grid. The suspension of the WESM will effectively shield the public from volatile prices that may arise from the unavailability of some power plants,” the DOE said.
The DOE is also verifying if power interruptions outside of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise area also occurred.
Meralco at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday restored electricity service to all customers affected by the manual load dropping it implemented following the declaration of the red alert.
The company said up to two hours of rotating power interruptions affected 300,000 customers in parts of Metro Manila, Rizal and Cavite.
“We immediately activated the interruptible load program (ILP) to help manage the situation and requested our big-load customers to remain on standby until the situation normalized. We continue to monitor the situation and are ready to implement measures as needed,” Meralco said, in a statement.
Under the ILP, customers with large electricity consumption are encouraged to run their own generator sets whenever supply of electricity in the grid is short in exchange for monetary incentives.
The fuel they use in running their own power source are then paid by consumers.
