Visayas grid on yellow alert during peak hours

CEBU, Philippines - Electricity demand has surged due to the hot temperature currently experienced, prompting the Visayas grid to be under a yellow alert status during peak hours at night.

In an interview with The FREEMAN yesterday, Department of Energy-Visayas Director Antonio Labios said demand is usually high during peak hours at night from 5 PM to 10 PM.

 "Kusog ang paggamit sa kuryente [during those hours]," the energy official said.

 Labios said the Visayas recorded its highest peak demand last April 13 at 1,822 megawatts (MW), higher than last year's 1765 MW.

He said that power reserves during night time, between 5PM to 10PM, stands only at 40 MW, which is recorded as yellow alert. From 7AM to 12NN, power reserves is at 371 MW while in the afternoon, 12NN to 3PM, power reserves is at 319 MW.

In a report from BusinessWorld, it was said that while Visayas was on red alert last April 15, the Luzon grid was also on red alert from 1PM to 3PM as the intense heat brought about by the El Niño caused the power plants to stop. To address the power shortage, the Luzon grid also gets additional supply of 180 MW from the Visayas.

Insufficient power supply has been a major concern in Mindanao too, the same report stated.

According to Labios, high power demand is expected to continue as consumers use electricity more often especially air conditioning units because of the hot weather.

 He said a red alert status was issued last week for the Visayas grid due to deficiency in power reserves.

 A red alert signals a severe power deficiency while a yellow alert means power reserves are insufficient.

 Labios said that one unit of Cebu Energy Development Corp.'s plant is currently on maintenance shutdown and will resume operations on April 25. It is expected to provide the Visayas grid with additional 82 MW once it resumes operations.

 By then, he added, power situation will normalize leading to the May 9 elections.

 He said one unit of the 270-MW coal-fired power plant of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. is expected to commercially operate within this quarter, and likely to boost Visayas’ power supply with additional 135 MW.

With 217 MW infused to the grid, DOE is confident that there will be no brownouts and power will normalize a week before the elections and even up until after the elections.

He said when power supply becomes critical, big companies may join in the Interruptible Load Program wherein commercial and industrial firms with higher load source power from their generators instead from the grid.

 He said Cebu companies like San Miguel, SM and Waterfront hotel had previously joined the ILP.

 As of yesterday afternoon, the Visayas' peak power demand reached 1789 MW and system capacity stood at 2131 MW, leaving a 342-MW power reserve, according to the daily monitoring of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.   (FREEMAN)