Luzon grid placed on yellow alert anew

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) has called for more transparency regarding plant outages and the power situation as the Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert anew yesterday, the third consecutive day this week.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) raised a yellow alert status from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. due to insufficient operating reserve.

A yellow alert means there are not enough reserves to cover the largest running generating unit at the time, but does not necessarily lead to power outages.

Power plants still on unplanned outage include Pagbilao 3 (420 megawatts), Masinloc 2 (344 MW), Pagbilao 1 (382 MW), SLTEC 1 (150 MW) and Malaya 2 (350 MW).

Plants with derated capacity are the Calaca 2 at 200 MW (from 300 MW) and SLPGC 2 at 100 MW (from 150 MW).

“Unfortunately in the last three days, we had some reduction of power reserves,” Mario Marasigan, DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau director, told a Senate hearing yesterday.

On Tuesday, demand went up to 10,267 MW, which pushed contingency reserve to fall below the prescribed level of 647 MW, the capacity of the largest unit in the Luzon grid.

The DOE urged industry players not to announce grid alert status ahead of time to prevent causing alarm among consumers.

“We don’t want the situation to be taken advantage by some players in the sector,” Marasigan said.

However, consumer group Laban Konsyumer Inc. said the DOE should announce instances of yellow alert status in the power grid, citing the Freedom of Information Act.