Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday after four power generation plants went offline.
A yellow alert is placed over the grid when reserves fall below ideal levels. NGCP said the available capacity was at 11,572 megawatts, compared to a peak demand of 10,548 MW.
“Four power plants are on forced outage, while three others are running on derated capacities, for a total of 2,080 MW unavailable to the grid,” NGCP said.
Sources said the affected power plants on forced outages were Calaca 2, Masinloc 3, GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. 1 and GNPower Dinginin 2, totaling 1,691 MW.
Power plants which ran on derated capacities included Masinloc 1, Masinloc 2, and Sual 1 with a combined capacity of 461 MW.
Generators on scheduled maintenance accounted for 1,641 MW.
Sources said the Visayas grid was on red alert on Dec. 5 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., while a yellow alert was declared between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively. The red alert status was lifted by NGCP at 1 p.m. A red alert is declared when there is a severe power deficiency that may lead to rotating power interruptions.
Affected power plants on forced outages were Unit 1 of Power Barge 101, Units 2 and 3 of Therma Power Visayas and Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp.
The generating plants that ran on derated capacities were Toledo Power Corp. thermal power plant, Energy Development Corp.’s Leyte 2 and Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant 2.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the power supply remains “inadequate” and is wooing investors to the country’s power sector.