• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines raised a four-hour red alert status in the Visayas grid, starting at 5 p.m. April 16, and advised possible Manual Load Dropping (MLD), or rotational power interruptions, in Bacolod City, Negros Island, and other parts of the Visayas.
An NGCP advisory at 5:59 p.m. Tuesday said it raised a red alert from 5-9 p.m., and a yellow alert from 9-11 p.m. in the Visayas grid due to the outage of an additional plant, the KSPC 1, which has a capacity of 103 megawatts.
The red alert in the Luzon grid was from 4-11 p.m. due to the outage of two additional plants – Kalayaan 1 and 2 – at 180MW each.
A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement, the NGCP explained, adding that a yellow alert, on the other hand, means that the operating margin is insufficient to meet its contingency requirement.
“Manual load dropping or rotational power interruptions may be implemented to protect the integrity of the power system,” the NGCP, the sole transmission service provider and system operator of the Philippine power grid, said, adding the MLD may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections.
It initially issued a yellow alert in the Visayas grid past 10 a.m. after 12 power plants went on forced outage, with five others running on derated capacities, for a total of 676.5MW unavailable to the grid.
The Department of Energy, meanwhile, urged industrial and commercial establishments to minimize the use of power during peak hours to help mitigate the impact of the supply shortage.
“No energy should be wasted while we make sure that we remain productive,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said in a statement in reaction to the declaration of red and yellow alerts in the Visayas, and Luzon.
He said the extremely high temperatures have been affecting the operations of power plants. “While we continue to monitor and ask our power plant operators to work on restoring full operations, we can maximize our energy efficiency efforts as we go through this period of extreme heat.
“The public is encouraged to minimize the use of electricity during peak hours. These include turning off lights and unplugging appliances when not in use, avoiding whenever possible, the use of high-energy consuming devices, such aircon and elevator, which can significantly contribute to alleviating the strain on the grid,” the DOE added. | CGC
