NGCP lifts yellow alert for Luzon grid

Metro Manila, November 29 ------ Power in the Luzon grid has returned to normal after being put in red alert, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said.

In an advisory posted on its Facebook page, NGCP said "Yellow alert for the Luzon grid has been lifted by NGCP due to receding system demand." The agency earlier placed Luzon under red alert, meaning power supply cannot meet demand. A later advisory said the alert had eased to yellow, which means power reserves fall below ideal levels. The yellow alert was in place yesterday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

In an announcement, the company said six power plants were on forced outage, while three others were running on lower capacity, denying the grid a supply of 2,648 megawatts (MW). The power plants on forced outage at the time were the Calaca 2 in Batangas, GNPower Mariveles 1 in Bataan, Sual 1 in Pangasinan, Sta. Rita Module 20 also in Batangas, Masinloc 3 in Zambales, and San Buenaventura in Quezon, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). “Sual 1 and Masinloc 3, however, went back online at 10:19 a.m. and 11:19 a.m. respectively, making now the unavailable capacity at around 1,600 MW,” the department wrote in a statement posted at around 1 p.m. It listed the plants running on lower capacity as Masinloc 1, Masinloc 2 and Magat in Isabela.

Despite the outages, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla assured the public that there are no fuel supply constraints. “Some of these generating plants are on forced outage caused by power plant tripping," he said. The department said it anticipates that the Energy Regulatory Commission will also look into the root of outages to prevent similar occurrences.

Source: cnnphilippines.com