The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines is appealing to energy stakeholders to strictly monitor and ensure the availability of power in the coming months, following a surge in demand due to exceptionally high heat indices in recent days, and unplanned outages of critical power plants.
The NGCP said the highest peak demand for the year was recorded March 6 at 12,467 megawatts, or a five percent increase from the DOE-approved GOP forecast demand of 11,870MW for that day.
For 2025, the Department of Energy forecasted a peak of 14,769MW for Luzon to occur mid-May, a 5.37 percent increase from the 2024 actual peak of 14,016MW on April 24.
On March 5, hot weather conditions caused a spike in demand, but the unavailability of GNPD1, with a 668MW capacity among 11 other plants totaling 1,639.3MW, and the deration, or the operation at less than the declared capacity, of 16 other critical powerplants, led to the raising of the yellow alert from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. that day.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the generation’s contingency requirement, putting the grid at risk with the available contingency reserve less than the required operating margin, the NGCP said in a statement March 12.
A red alert status, meanwhile, is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the grid’s contingency requirement, it added.
“As in the past years, NGCP cautions the public that while power supply seems sufficient on paper, over the years, unplanned outages of critical plants are a major factor in the power situation and have been the primary cause of power interruptions,” the grid operator explained.
While NGCP has complied with the DOE directive on the procurement of ancillary services (AS) through competitive selection process (CSP) and payment of AS procured through the AS Reserve Market, the unplanned outages cause all power dispatched through the transmission system to be used for energy consumption.
The contingency and dispatchable ancillary services will have been depleted and already running and dispatched as ‘energy’ for use by the consumers, and no longer reserved for ancillary services, since the contingency for which they were procured has already occurred, the NGCP said.
“A shortfall in supply, should that occur, means that while all available generators are running, including those contracted by NGCP for ancillary services, the existing supply is still insufficient to meet demand,” it stressed.
It reiterated the need for additional, non-intermittent baseload power sources to ensure the stability of power supply, even as it advised the public to exercise prudence in its consumption of power to alleviate possible power shortages. ||
