NGCP: Transmission system stable even at highest-demand peak period

By Lenie Lectura – July 18, 2019
from Business Mirror

THE country’s transmission system remained reliable during the summer period when demand for electricity is at its peak, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said on Wednesday.

The grid operator said it did not encounter any major transmission-related issues despite the El Niño phenomenon, which brought about a more dry and humid summer season causing high demand for electricity.

The highest peak load for the year was recorded last June 21 at 11,344 megawatts, 468 MW higher than 2018’s peak, which reached 10,876 MW. This is slightly lower than the Department of Energy’s (DOE) projected demand of 11,403 MW for 2019.

“With DOE’s forecast for this year breaching 11,000 MW, NGCP worked round-the-clock to ensure the reliability of its systems and to avoid any issues or difficulties during this critical period. We constantly coordinated with other industry players—power generating plants, the market operator and the DOE—to fully mitigate the impact of the record-breaking demand for power and the limited generating capacity of plants. To further mitigate the supply-demand balance, NGCP campaigned for energy use efficiency in national, local and social-media channels,” said NGCP.

Visayas and Mindanao have yet to reach their peak demand for the year. For 2019, the DOE projects an 11.98-percent increase in the Visayas load growth with forecasted peak at 2,299 MW, while demand in Mindanao is estimated at 2,130 MW, both expected by the last quarter of 2019.

With the onset of the rainy season, the system condition is expected to improve, but until the situation normalizes, more grid alerts may be issued. NGCP appealed to the public to continue to use energy efficiently.

“Now that the summer season is officially over, this does not mean that we should stop implementing energy-saving measures. Let us make it a part of our lifestyle to be wise electricity consumers so that we can do our part in ensuring improved power flow within the grid,” NGCP said.

NGCP assured its stakeholders that it is continuously improving, expanding, and reinforcing the power grid to accommodate additional loads from power generators and enable better transmission of power across the country.

NGCP is a Filipino-led, privately owned company in charge of operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s power grid, led by majority shareholders Henry Sy Jr. and Robert Coyiuto Jr.