Yellow alert over Luzon grid lifted

BY LENIE LECTURA – JULY 13, 2021
from Business Mirror

THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert Tuesday as four plants went on forced outage and three plants failed to deliver its full output.

The yellow alert was issued from 10 to 11 a.m. and from 12 noon to 2 p.m. However, the alert was lifted around 1 p.m. “due to low actual system demand.”

Earlier in the day, the NGCP said capacity stood at 11,967megawatts (MW) while demand was estimated at 10,924MW.

The power plants that went on an unplanned outage were Quezon Power (460MW), Pagbilao unit 2 (382MW), GN Power Mariveles unit 1 (316MW) and Calaca unit 2 (300MW).

The power plants with derated capacity were the 145MW Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. (SLPGC) unit 1, which was derated by 5MW; 23-MW SLPGC unit 2, derated by 2MW; and 590MW SLPGC unit 3, derated by 57MW.

These resulted in the loss of 1,522MW of power supply.

Meanwhile, the NGCP said it has sought the help of its partner to help repair the company’s 138kV high voltage submarine cable in Negros.

The facility was damaged during the dredging and re-channeling activities undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) along Bio-os River, Brgy. Jagna in Amlan, Negros Oriental last month.

The submarine cable, which interconnects Negros and Cebu, has two circuits of 138kV submarine cable with 90MW capacity each or a total capacity of 180MW.

Because of the damage to one of the two circuits, transmission capacity is currently limited to 90MW between the two islands. NGCP’s System Integrity Protection Scheme (SIPS) was automatically activated after the incident to isolate the affected circuit and prevent overloading of the remaining cable.

Initial reports received by NGCP indicate that a contributing factor to the incident was the deviation on the agreed work site by the DPWH. NGCP has requested the local government of Amlan and the DPWH to temporarily stop their operations, and immediately implemented measures to contain the oil spill.

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