Luzon grid on yellow alert

Power plants that have been undergoing forced outages, causing thin power reserves in the Luzon grid will be audited, the Department of Energy (DOE) said yesterday.

DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella downplayed the yellow alert status raised on the Luzon grid yesterday, saying this is only due to thinning reserves and not because of low power supply.

“It’s basically thinning of reserves by about 150 megawatts from the required 624 MW. The deficit is only on the reserves, not on the supply,” Fuentebella said.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert from 11 a.m. to noon and from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. yesterday due to the unexpected shutdown of some power plants and high forecast demand.

A yellow alert means reserves are not enough to cover the largest running generating unit at a given time, but does not necessarily lead to power outages.

The NGCP said available capacity was pegged at 10,473 MW while peak demand was estimated to reach 9,676 MW.

At 2:30 p.m. yesterday, the grid operator lifted the yellow alert status due to sufficient generating capacity brought by a low actual demand.

During the yellow alert, the Manila Electric Co. readied a total of 126 accounts with a load of 189.22 MW, which committed to reduce their load under the interruptible load program.

Fuentebella said the alert status was raised after several plants conked out again while some operated at a derated capacity.