Visayas grid gets relief – for now
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Visayas grid, which had been suffering instability in the past few weeks, has finally gotten a reprieve.
Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) has been reactivated on Wednesday, July 1, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) confirmed.
READ: Why are ‘rotational brownouts’ necessary to prevent a Visayas blackout?
As one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the region, it brought an additional 150 megawatts (MW) of power to the Visayas grid.
That’s why, on Thursday, July 2, no yellow alerts have been raised for the Visayas grid, said Amado Otarra III of the Visayas System Operations of the NGCP.
READ: EXPLAINER: Color-coded grid alert statuses and what they mean
“Since then, there have been no more yellow alerts,” Otarra told members of the media.
For eight straight weeks, the Visayas grid had been facing multiple yellow and even red alerts as high electricity demand and the forced outages of at least 20 power plants had effectively strained the system.
READ: DOE, ERC demand full NGCP report on Luzon, Visayas grid disruptions
According to Otarra, the immediate interventions needed to ensure stability in the grid are to reactivate plants that have been under forced outages.
Aside from PEDC Unit 3, energy stakeholders are expecting Therma Visayas Inc (TVI), based in Toledo City, Cebu, to restart operations of its Units 1 and 2.
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