NGCP expects improvement in Luzon grid power supply

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) expects some improvement in the Luzon grid’s power supply conditions with the onset of the rainy season but warned that power situation has yet to normalize.

With the onset of the rainy season, the system condition is expected to improve, but until the situation normalizes, more grid alerts may be issued, NGCP said.

Because of this, the grid operator continues to appeal to the public to continue to use energy efficiently.

“Now that the summer season is officially over, this does not mean that we should stop implementing energy saving measures. Let us make it a part of our lifestyle to be wise electricity consumers so that we can do our part in ensuring improved power flow within the grid,” NGCP said.

NGCP earlier said tight power supply conditions would continue in the Luzon grid until September when hydropower plants resume operations after the rainy season.

Since the start of the year, NGCP has raised 14 red alert warnings and 46 yellow alert notices in the Luzon grid. In June alone, it issued13 yellow alert and five red alert warnings.

NGCP, however, said its systems remained reliable and did not encounter any major transmission-related issues throughout the summer period, despite the El Niño phenomenon which brought about a more dry and humid summer season causing high demand for electricity.

According to NGCP, Luzon’s highest peak load for the year was recorded at 11,344 megawatts (MW) on June 21, 468 MW higher than 2018’s peak of 10,876 MW.

However, this year’s peak demand was slightly lower than the Department of Energy’s projected demand of 11,403 MW.

“With DOE’s forecast for this year breaching 11,000 MW, NGCP worked round-the-clock to ensure the reliability of its systems and to avoid any issues or difficulties during this critical period. We constantly coordinated with other industry players – power generating plants, the market operator, and the DOE – to fully mitigate the impact of the record-breaking demand for power and the limited generating capacity of plants. To further mitigate the supply-demand balance, NGCP campaigned for energy use efficiency in national, local, and social media channels,” NGCP said.

NGCP said Visayas and Mindanao have yet to reach their peak demand for the year.

For 2019, the DOE expects a 12 percent jump in the Visayas load growth with the projected peak at 2,299 MW, while demand in Mindanao is estimated to hit 2,130 MW, both expected by the last quarter.

NGCP has assured its stakeholders that it is continuously improving, expanding, and reinforcing the power grid to accommodate additional loads from power generators and enable better transmission of power across the country.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.