(File photo)
MANILA – There will be a longer period of red alert status for the Luzon grid on Friday, the fourth straight day that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) issued an alert status due to tight power supply.
The NGCP placed the Luzon grid anew in red alert on Apr. 19 from 3 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m., a total of five hours that the grid may experience rotational brownouts.
For the franchise areas of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), it said that it did not resort to MLD, as its big customers under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) de-loaded some 200 megawatts to help ease the demand.
“Following NGCP’s declaration of another round of Red and Yellow Alerts today, April 19, we already asked the ILP participants for their de-loading commitments,” Meralco said.
“If necessary, we are ready to implement MLD as part of our responsibility to manage the system,” it added.
The NGCP issues red alert status when power reserves fall below the maintaining level of 4 percent of peak demand. When a red alert, rotational brownouts are expected.
The NGCP, likewise, placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert status from noon to 3 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday.
Based on NGCP data, the margin between available capacity and peak demand on Friday was lower at 422 MW compared to the previous day.
Available capacity on Friday stood at 13,549 MW while peak demand increased to 13,127 MW.
On Thursday, the margin was at 505 MW as available capacity stood at 13,397 MW and peak demand was lower at 12,892 MW.
The NGCP also placed the Visayas grid on yellow alert status from noon to 4 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The cause of the red and yellow alert status in both grids is still the 19 power plants in the Luzon grid which went on forced outage. Meanwhile, an additional two power plants shut down in the Visayas grid on Friday, bringing the total to 15 power plants on forced outage, from only 13 facilities shutdown on Thursday. (PNA)
