NGCP places Luzon grid on yellow alert

BY LENIE LECTURA – JULY 5, 2022
from Business Mirror

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has once again placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert as power reserves fell after a number of power plants conked out.

The yellow alert notice took effect from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

The grid’s available capacity stood at 11,847 megawatts (MW) while operating requirement was at 11,177MW, leaving a net operating margin of only 236MW.

A yellow alert is issued when the excess power is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s regulating and contingency requirement, pegged at the time at about 495 MW and 647 MW, respectively.

The NGCP said four power plants, with a combined capacity of 1,274 megawatts, were on forced outage. These are GN Power Dinginin Ltd. Co. (GNPD) Unit 1 (668MW), GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. Co. (GMEC) Unit 2 (316MW), SEM Calaca Power Corp. (Calaca) Unit 2 (240MW), and South Luzon Power Generation Corp. (SLPGC) 3 and 4 (50MW).

Moreover, the Masinloc power station unit 1 was reported “derated” by 165MW.

In all, some 1,439MW of capacity was shaved off from the grid.

From January to April, the Luzon grid had three yellow alerts. In comparison, there were four days of yellow alerts and three days of red alerts in 2021.

The same grid was placed on yellow and red alerts last June 18, yellow alert last June 20, 21, and 22.

The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) reiterated calls for flexible and distributed power generation in the country. ICSC energy transition advisor Alberto Dalusung III said the frequent yellow alerts show the underlying problem of recurring centralized generator shutdowns in the grid.

“The high power generating costs, interruptions, and the grid alert levels raised during this time highlights the vulnerability of our grid to large centralized generators. Any problem with these centralized generators can push the entire power system into a costly and vulnerable state because of the significant share of each individual centralized plant in the system,” Dalusung said.

“Our current situation emphasizes the urgent need for an energy transition based on flexible, distributed energy sources. While we acknowledge that this energy transition will not be an overnight process, we need to pick up the pace by keeping flexibility and decentralization in perspective for our country’s system planning and policy-making.”