Manila: A seven-hour red alert has been declared for the Mindanao grid from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, while the red alert for the Visayas grid has been extended, as announced by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
According to Philippines News Agency, the grid operator stated in an advisory that as of 1:30 p.m., a yellow alert remains in effect for Mindanao from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. This situation arises as available capacity has decreased to 2,572 megawatts (MW) from 2,652 MW earlier in the day, while peak demand has increased to 2,622 MW from 2,545 MW. The unavailability of Units 2 and 3 of GNPower Kauswagan, coupled with higher demand, has been exacerbated by the forced outage of Unit 2 of Therma Marine Inc. as of 10:18 a.m. on Friday.
Additionally, generating Units 1 and 2 of the Iligan Diesel Power Plant and the Western Mindanao Power Corporation have registered lower capacity during the day, as reported by NGCP. The grid operator highlighted that 15 power plants in Mindanao are on forced outage this month, while 16 have been unavailable since as far back as 2024, and seven are operating at derated capacity, resulting in a total loss to the grid of approximately 882.4 MW.
For the Visayas grid, the red alert is now in effect from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., extending the previous timeframe of 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Besides the 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. yellow alert for the day, a similar situation is anticipated from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. This is due to available capacity hovering around 2,012 MW, while peak demand is expected to reach 2,389 MW.
NGCP further reported that nine power plants in the Visayas are currently non-operational, primarily Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. and Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corporation. Additionally, 24 other facilities have been unavailable since 2021, while 14 are functioning at derated capacities, resulting in a total grid loss of around 1,030.1 MW.
The NGCP issues a yellow alert whenever a grid's operating margin is insufficient for contingency requirements, whereas a red alert is triggered when supply fails to meet both consumer demand and the grid's regulating requirement.
