The government lifted the ‘yellow alert’ on power supply in Luzon, as more plants resume operation, Energy officials said Tuesday.
“[It is] normal alert so far,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said, after Quezon Power Philippines Ltd.’s 500-megawatt power plant came back online.
National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said in its advisory the normal grid status was raised this week, after additional power capacity started coming in.
National Grid said the reliability run conducted by the 414-MW San Gabriel natural gas plant and the energization of the Pagbilao unit 2 also helped ease the projected supply constraint.
Luzon grid’s power reserves reached 1,111 MW Tuesday, as capacity was placed at 9,514 MW, exceeding the peak demand of 8,081 MW.
Luzon grid is also projected to have adequate reserves of 1,115 MW on Wednesday, with capacity reaching 9,869 MW versus demand of 8,754 MW.
Meanwhile, National Grid said it was preparing the transmission network to accommodate nearly 4,000 megawatts of additional power capacity in the Mindanao grid by 2020.
National Grid head of Mindanao system planning division Fernando Javier said in a presentation during the Energy Department’s Investment Forum in Davao that the region was expected to sustain economic growth, which would necessitate additional power capacity.
Javier said the existing transmission network needed a “230-kV backbone to accommodate entry of bulk generation capacity.”
He said of the power projects capacity additions between 2015 and 2025, 3,322 MW would come from conventional power plants, including 3,310 MW from coal and 12 MW from diesel.
The remaining 669 MW would be from renewable energy plants, of which the bulk would be hydro projects.
Javier said Mindanao’s substations were already old and needed rehabilitation.
Javier said National Grid approved several projects to address Mindanao’s transmission requirements, including the Opol 138 kV substation, Agus 6 SY upgrading/rehabilitation, Sultan Kudarat capacitor project, Mindanao substation expansion 2, Malita-Matanao 230 kV transmission line and Matanao-General Santos 138 kV transmission line.
Other projects approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission were Baloi-Kauswagan-Aurora 230 kV transmission line phase 1 project, Aurora-Polanco 138 kV transmission line, Agus 2 SY upgrading project, Butuan-Placer 138 kV transmission project, Tacurong-Kalamansig 69 kV transmission line and Toril 138 kV substation stage 2.
The company also lined up the Mindanao 230 kV transmission backbone project.
Javier said National Grid’s future transmission projects in Mindanao would include Balo-i-Tagaloan-Opol 138 kV transmission line, Baloi-Kauswagan-Aurora transmission line, Tacurong-Sultan Kudarat 138 kV transmission line, Villanueva-Jasaan-Butuan 138 kV transmission line and the Kabacan 138 kV substation.
National Grid also plans to pursue the Mindanao substation upgrading and rehabilitation projects and the Visayas-Mindanao interconnection project.