Luzon grid red alert saved from rotational brownouts

While power supply in the Luzon grid wobbled into breaking point following the ‘red alert’ declaration on Tuesday, consumers were spared from going through rotational brownouts despite cautionary advisories from both system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and power utility giant Manila Electric Company.

According to NGCP, the brownout warnings at 2 to 3 p.m. for Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative, Isabela Electric Cooperative, Cagayan Electric Cooperative, Batangas I Electric Cooperative and Olongapo Electricity Distribution Company, did not materialize because supply held on during those peak-demand time-frame.

Similarly, there were no brownout schedules implemented anymore in Metro Manila and the other service areas of Meralco.

As earlier announced by NGCP, red alert hours on power supply will be sustained until 4 p.m. then at prime time hours of 6 to 9 p.m., which were precipitated by the forced outages of 19 electric generating units in the Luzon grid

A red alert is declared by system operator NGCP when the reserves requirement in the system falls below four percent vis-à-vis projected peak demand.

The power grid operator emphasized that “19 power plants are on forced outages; while three others are running on derated capacities, or a total of 2,117.3 megawatts unavailable to the grid.”

Apart from that, yellow alert or a state of power reserves insufficiency had also distressed Luzon grid from 1:00pm to 2:00pm; then will keep on at 4:00 to 6:00pm and 9:00 to 11:00pm; while the same yellow alert has also been raised for Visayas grid from 2:00 to 4:00pm and 6:00 to 7:00pm.

For Visayas, NGCP noted that “12 power plants are on forced outages; while five others are on derated capacities for a total of 676.5MW unavailable to the grid.”

Based on data from NGCP, the electric generating units suddenly taken out from the system in the Luzon grid due to forced outages were those of Masinloc 1; Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp 2; Santa Rita plant module 40; Binga 1, Binga 4, Ambuklao 1 and 2; Bakun 1 and 2 units; Maris 1 and 2 units; the generating unit of the National Irrigation Administration; Bineng plant; Irisan; Pagbilao units 1 and 2; VS Gripal plant and BT 2020 generating units.

From the forced outages of the generating facilities, it was reported by the grid operator that there was a loss of aggregate 1,811.3 megawatts in the system.

On top of that, there were also three major plants with capacity de-rating (reduced power generation) of at least 306MW - including those of the South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation units 1 and 2; as well as the Ilijan Block A generating unit.

For Tuesday, April 16, the estimated peak demand for Luzon grid was at 13,024 megawatts; while available capacity was extremely tight at 13,537MW.

In the Visayas grid, peak demand forecast was at 2,440MW; while available capacity had been pegged by the system operator at 2,742MW.