Luzon and the Visayas on Monday were placed under yellow alert beginning 8 a.m. as 46 power plants were on forced outage or compelled to de-rate, resulting to capacity loss of 2,594.2 megawatts.
The yellow alert was raised in the Luzon grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. as 19 power plant units and four others de-rated, resulting in the unavailability of 2,040.8 MW.
The same flag was also raised in the Visayas from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. as 16 power plant units were on forced outage and seven more de-rated, resulting to total lost capacity of 553.4 MW.
The yellow flag comes up when reserve power is low in relation to demand although interruptions are not imminent.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the available capacity in the Luzon was only 13,867 MW compared to peak demand of 13,125 MW. In the Visayas, capacity totaled 2,675 MW versus 2,575 MW peak demand.
Senate committee on energy vice chairman Sherwin Gatchalian reiterated the need for both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to take a more proactive stance to resolve power-related issues.
Gatchalian said he told the ERC and the DOE to improve their proactive processes: “We saw this was not about the law but being proactive,”
In addition, Gatchalian told reporters at the sidelines of the Solar and Storage Live Philippines 2024 event in Pasay City on Monday that both complained of the lack of personnel and training of its people and lack of anticipation on what needs to be done of the situation.
Gatchalian said securing power plant spare parts and technical personnel is getting worse and adds to the problem of prolonged and unexpected plant shutdowns.
But he expressed optimism the situation is saved by the addition of new power capacities and the lowering of ambient temperature with more frequent rainfall.
