The Luzon grid was placed under “yellow alert” a week earlier than forecast, this time for a total of 70 minutes, as contingency reserve power generation capacity was not enough although available capacity still exceeded peak demand.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines announced on Tuesday morning that yellow alert would be observed from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and again from 12 noon to 2 p.m.
According to NGCP, the Luzon grid needs a total of 1,122 MW of combined regulating and contingency reserves.
When the reserves fall below 1,122 MW, the grid might not meet the peak demand if an emergency or unplanned power plant shutdown occurs.
NGCP said that on Tuesday, Luzon needed 10,924 MW but the available capacity was just 11,067 MW.
Based on the supply-demand outlook for the week July 13-19, available generating capacity in Luzon averaged at 11,735 MW while peak demand was pegged at 10,619 MW. This leaves an operating margin of only 1,116 MW.
NGCP said there were power generators accounting for 1,522 MW that were not operating.
These include four power plants under forced outage status—two with a combined capacity of 842 MW in Quezon province, one with 316 MW in Bataan and another with 300 MW in Batangas.