Visayas: A three-hour red alert has been raised over the Visayas grid on Tuesday starting at 5 p.m., while the Mindanao grid is again under yellow alert as power supply remains limited due to the unavailability of several power plants.
According to Philippines News Agency, aside from the red alert in the Visayas grid from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), in an advisory, said a yellow alert is also declared between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. This is because available capacity is around 2,400 megawatts (MW) while peak demand is expected to reach 2,507MW.
The primary factors behind the alerts are the unavailability of Unit 1 of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) and Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC), as well as lower power imports from the Mindanao grid. NGCP said seven power plants in the Visayas are currently unavailable for September alone, while more than 20 others have been on forced outage since 2021. It said 14 other power plants are operating at derated capacities, resulting in a total loss of around 786.4MW.
For the Mindanao grid, total capacity to date is around 2,805 MW while expected peak is around 2,627MW. Thus, the yellow alert is in effect from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. NGCP said supply is affected by the unavailability of Units 2 and 3 of the GNPower Kauswagan (GNPK), one of the 10 power plants facing issues this month alone. It said 16 other power plants in Mindanao are unavailable while five others are operating at derated capacities, bringing the total loss to around 756.9MW.
NGCP issues a yellow alert when a grid has insufficient capacity to meet contingency requirements, while a red alert is raised when available supply is insufficient to meet both demand and the regulating requirement. Department of Energy officials on Monday said measures are now being put in place to address the transmission alerts in both the Visayas and Mindanao, with an initial solution eyed within this month.
