6 power plants on outage; brownouts expected in Luzon grid

Meanwhile, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it has advised its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants for possible activation, if still needed, to ease demand for power amid the yellow and red alert status in the grid. (File photo by Joey O. Razon/PNA)

MANILA – Rotational brownouts are expected in Luzon between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Monday as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) declared the grid under red alert status during this period.

The Luzon grid was also put under yellow alert status from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The NGCP said available capacity in the grid on Monday is at 10,708 megawatts (MW), while peak demand is forecasted at 10,246 MW.

It said available power in the Luzon grid has become limited due to six power plants that shut down while three other power plants are running on derated capacities.

A total of 2,648 MWs were unavailable to the grid due to the forced outages and derated capacities of power plants.

In its report to the Department of Energy (DOE), power plants that went on forced outage include Calaca 2, GN Power Mariveles 1, Sual 1, Sta. Rita Module 20, Masinloc 3 and San Buenaventura Power Plant.

Sual 1 and Masinloc 3 went back online before noon, making the unavailable capacity down to 1,600 MWs, DOE said.

“We assure the public that there appears to be no fuel constraints. Some of these generating plants are on forced outage caused by power plant tripping,” DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.

The agency also expects the Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate on the forced shutdown of the six power plants to prevent similar occurrence in the future.

Meanwhile, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it has advised its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants for possible activation, if still needed, to ease demand for power amid the yellow and red alert status in the grid.

“As of 11:30 a.m., we have 346.40 MW of committed de-loading capacity under the ILP. We are monitoring the situation and ready to implement manual load dropping (MLD) or rotating power interruptions if instructed by NGCP as part of our responsibility to manage the system,” Meralco added.

NGCP declares yellow alert when power reserves decline below the ideal levels, while it raises to a red alert when power reserves drop below the maintaining level of 4 percent of peak demand.

During a red alert status, rotational brownouts are being implemented.