Red alerts tormenting Luzon grid power supply again
By Myrna M. Velasco – November 28, 2022, 1:52 PM
from Manila Bulletin
From the rotational brownouts on Sunday and the momentary declaration of “red alert” on Monday, Nov. 28, alarm bells are being raised that consumers may need to brace for recurring strained power supply in the main grid of Luzon, especially when the summer months would kick off.
System operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) declared ‘red alert’ or a condition of extreme deficiency of power reserves due to simultaneous outages of power plants on Monday morning; but this was subsequently lifted at 11:30am, due to entry of additional capacity in the grid.
It was gathered that the 647MW unit 1 of the Sual coal-fired power facility was synchronized back to the grid at 10:19am on Monday – after it suffered forced outage “due to external line issues.”
Upon lifting of the ‘red alert’ status of the Luzon grid, NGCP emphasized that ‘yellow alert’ was expected persisting from 3:00pm to 4:00pm; and then from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.
Apart from the Sual plant, the other power facilities reported to have suffered unscheduled shutdowns had been: the 300MW Unit 2 Calaca coal plant; 316MW Unit 1 of GNPower Mariveles coal plant; 335MW unit 3 of the Masinloc coal plant; 256MW Module 20 of the Santa Rita gas plant; and the 455MW San Buenaventura coal plant.
There were also generating plants with de-rated capacities, including: unit 1 of the Masinloc coal-fired plant of which generation had been down to 250MW (from 300MW); unit 2 of Masinloc plant’s generation had been pared to 270MW (from 300MW); and the Magat hydropower facility’s capacity had been reduced to 160MW from 360MW.
For the power plants that had been on outages, the capacity loss in the system summed up to 2,309MW that was compounded by 339MW de-rated generation of the other plants.
The “red alert’ situation on Monday was the biggest after Sunday, Nov. 27, which afflicted several parts of Luzon, including roughly 500,000 customers served by power utility giant Manila Electric Company.
The areas that suffered from brownouts over the weekend had been those in Caloocan City, Malabon, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Paranaque, Valenzuela, and some areas of Quezon City in Metro Manila; as well as those in Plaridel and San Rafael in Bulacan; Binan, San Pedro, and Sta. Rosa in Laguna; Carmona in Cavite; and Candaba in Pampanga.
Industry stakeholders highlighted that the recurring red alert conditions in the power system could be a harbinger of things to come – especially for Luzon grid, which may be unable to avoid blackout predicaments in the high-demand months of summer.
In a statement, Energy Secretary Raphael P. M. Lotilla noted that “there is no fuel supply constraints after these power generating plants went on forced outages,” adding that “some of these generating plants are on forced outage caused by power plant tripping.”
He indicated that the Energy Regulatory Commission “will look into the root of this to prevent similar occurrence.”
And while there is no certainty yet that the precarious situation of power supply in the grid will be resolved in the immediate timeframe, the energy chief is appealing to the power utilities, primarily Meralco, for them to coordinate with participants in their interruptible load program (ILP) to switch on their own generating facilities when grid supply turns scarce.
