The Visayas Grid has been placed under Red Alert by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Monday, August 17, as available power capacity fell below projected peak demand.
Based on NGCP’s 8 a.m. update, the Red Alert will be in effect from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., while Yellow Alert will be raised from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and again from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The grid has an available capacity of 2,334 megawatts (MW) against a peak demand of 2,413 MW, leaving a 79-MW shortfall.
NGCP said the alerts were primarily triggered by the unavailability of the Visayas’ large coal-fired power plants TVI 1 and TVI 2, as well as limited power imports from Mindanao due mainly to coal plant outages and high system demand in the area.
The power grid operator also reported that several generating plants are unavailable or operating at reduced capacity. Six plants are on forced outage this August, while others have been out of service since July, June, May, March and previous years.
In addition, 14 power plants are operating at derated capacities, resulting in a total of 810.3 MW of unavailable capacity.
NGCP explained that a Red Alert is declared when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the regulating requirement of the transmission grid.
A Yellow Alert, meanwhile, is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
The alerts are expected to cover the periods of highest power demand in the Visayas on Monday afternoon and evening.
