Power grid red alerts extended in Visayas, raised over Mindanao
MANILA – A seven-hour red alert is up for the Mindanao grid from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, while the red alert in the Visayas grid has been extended, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
The grid operator, in an advisory, said that as of 1:30 p.m., a yellow alert remains for Mindanao, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
This, as available capacity is now at 2,572 megawatts (MW), down from 2,652 MW this morning, while peak demand is up to 2,622MW from 2,545 MW.
Aside from the unavailability of Units 2 and 3 of the GNPower Kauswagan and higher demand, NGCP said Unit 2 of the Therma Marine Inc. experienced forced outage as of 10:18 a.m. Friday.
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Generating Units 1 and 2 of the Iligan Diesel Power Plant and the Western Mindanao Power Corporation registered lower capacity during the day, NGCP said.
The grid operator said 15 power plants in Mindanao are on forced outage this month, while 16 have been unavailable as far back as 2024, and seven are operating on derated capacity. Total loss to the grid is around 882.4MW.
Well into the night
For the Visayas grid, the red alert is now from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., longer than the previous 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. schedule.
Aside from the 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. yellow alert for the day, the same situation is also set from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
This came as available capacity is around 2,012MW while peak demand is expected to reach 2,389MW.
NGCP said nine power plants in the Visayas are currently not working, mainly Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. and Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corporation.
It said 24 others are unavailable since 2021 while 14 are operating at derated capacities, bringing the total loss to the grid to around 1,030.1 MW.
NGCP issues a yellow alert whenever a grid’s operating margin is short of the contingency requirement, while a red alert is issued when supply is inadequate to meet both the consumer demand and the grid’s regulating requirement.
READ: Cebu faces longer brownouts as Visayas power shortage worsens
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