Consumers warned of power outages as Luzon grid on yellow, red alerts

Credit to Author: JORDEENE B. LAGARE| Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2019 02:36:15 +0000

CONSUMERS may experience power outages on Monday as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) will raise red and yellow alerts in the Luzon grid for several hours.

In its advisory, the NGCP said a red alert would be up from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

As of posting time, the Luzon grid is under yellow alert until 1 p.m.

A yellow alert will also be raised from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“The red and yellow alerts have been caused by insufficient operating reserves due to the forced outage of multiple power plants,” the Department of Energy (DoE) said in another advisory.

Power plants with a total capacity of 1,367 MW are offline or on unscheduled shutdown:

Limay Unit 2 of SMC Consolidated Power Corp. (150 MW)
Sual Unit 1 of TeaM Energy Corp. (647 MW),
Unit 2 of Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. (150 MW)
Pagbilao Unit 3 of Pagbilao Energy Corp. (420 MW)

The power plants below are running at a de-rated capacity:
315-MW Masinloc Unit 1 of Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. (11 MW)
300-MW Calaca Unit 2 of SEM-Calaca Power Corp. (100 MW)

Available capacity is at 10,669 megawatts (MW) while peak demand is at 10,619 MW.

The NGCP declares a red alert when contingency reserves reach zero which could lead to power outages in the grid.

A yellow alert is raised when reserves are less than the capacity of the biggest plant in the grid which is 647 MW for Luzon.

Yellow alert, however, does not necessarily lead to power interruptions.

But the DoE said power outages were possible from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., depending on system conditions.

To avert the likelihood of a power interruption during hours when red alert is declared, the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) may be implemented.

ILP is a scheme which aims to help alleviate supply deficiencies in the power grid by voluntarily reducing the amount of load connected to the distribution grid during the peak hours of the day, according to the Manila Electric Co.’s website.

The post Consumers warned of power outages as Luzon grid on yellow, red alerts appeared first on The Manila Times Online.

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