Luzon grid on 'yellow alert' after power plant shuts down

MANILA, Philippines -- A yellow alert was raised on the Luzon grid on Thursday after a major power plant tripped, causing power reserves to drop below the minimum requirement.

 

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Luzon grid will be on yellow alert from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “due to lower level operating reserves brought about by insufficient power supply.”

 

A yellow alert means power reserves are below the minimum level set by the regulator, which is equivalent to the capacity of the largest running power plant in the grid.

 

NGCP estimated supply to be at 9,717 megawatts (MW) as compared to a peak demand of 9,246 MW. This means power reserves were projected at 471 MW.

 

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said power supply dropped after the emergency shutdown of Unit 2 of the Sual power plant in Pangasinan, which has a capacity of 647 MW.

 

Also, Unit 1 of the Calaca coal-fired power plant has limited output from 200 MW to 180 MW.

 

The limited power supply also happened as several power plants are on maintenance shutdown namely the 300-MW Unit 2 of the Calaca power plant, the 262-MW Sta. Rita Mod. 20 plant, the 135-MW South Luzon Thermal Corp. plant, the 60-MW Unit 2 of Limay power plant and the 50-MW Unit 2 of Angat hydroelectric power facility, Meralco said.

 

Meralco urged customers to be energy efficient to help avoid manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational brownout.