YELLOW ALERT. A power substation on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City shown in this photo taken on April 19, 2024. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines placed the Luzon and Visayas grids on yellow alert status on April 23, 2024. (PNA file photo)
MANILA – Two days after Luzon and Visayas grids went back to normal operations, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Tuesday declared yellow alert status again on these islands.
In an advisory this afternoon, the NGCP said it placed the Luzon grid under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., while the Visayas grid is under the same status from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
In the Luzon grid, the NGCP said 18 power plants are still on forced outage and two facilities are running on derated capacities, while the Visayas grid has 20 power plants on unplanned outage and nine were on derated capacities.
Peak demand in Luzon for the day is projected at 13,690 megawatts, with an available capacity of 13,690 MW.
The Visayas grid’s peak demand is at 2,571 MW and capacity is at 2,742 MW.
“A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement,” the NGCP said.
Last week, the Luzon grid experienced red and yellow alerts for five straight days, while the Visayas grid was placed under a yellow alert for four days and a red alert for two days.
Red alert in Luzon
At 4:44 p.m., the NGCP raised the red alert status in the Luzon grid between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
“A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement,” it said.
The NGCP said automatic load dropping (ALD) was implemented in parts of La Union, Tarlac, and Camarines Sur, with power interruptions not exceeding 15 minutes.
Manual load dropping (MLD) was implemented in parts of Isabela and Pampanga starting 3:40 p.m. and 3:41 p.m., respectively. After more than an hour, power interruptions were still ongoing.
An ALD also occurred in Manila Electric Company (Meralco) franchise areas, affecting around 200,000 customers in parts of Metro Manila, Pampanga, Bulacan, Laguna and Quezon Province.
"Service was fully restored by 3:50 p.m.," Meralco said in a Viber message.
In a separate statement, Meralco and the Department of Energy (DOE) encouraged more participants in the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which helps manage the demand during a red alert status.
“We call for your support and cooperation for the country’s objective of having continuous power supply by participating in the ILP and being part of the solution to the power supply challenges,” DOE Director for Electric Power Industry Management Bureau Irma Exconde said.
Through the ILP, large-load users are requested by Meralco to use their own generator sets or reduce their operations during a red alert to give the grid’s available capacity to household consumers or establishments with no gensets.
This initiative also avoids rotating brownouts for household customers.
For the red alerts in the Luzon grid last week, Meralco’s ILP spared 1.9 million households from power interruptions.
"The active participation of ILP participants in the Meralco franchise area in recent days is worth highlighting as it has greatly helped relieve pressure from the power grid, sparing thousands of small businesses and households from rotating power interruptions,” Meralco vice president and head for enterprise and national government Ma. Cecilia Domingo said.
Since 2014, Meralco has implemented the ILP 27 times in its franchise areas.
“Bayanihan continues to be our battle cry this year as we all try to do our part to mitigate the impact of El Niño on the power sector,” Meralco vice president and head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said. (PNA)
