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MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said that the supply of electricity in the Luzon grid remain thin as it raised a yellow alert for four hours on Saturday.
In an advisory over the weekend, NGCP said the alert was up in the Luzon grid from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. after more than 20 power plants are either unavailable or have slashed their output.
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A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid鈥檚 contingency requirement although it does not necessarily lead to power interruptions.
The grid operator said a total of 2,325.8 megawatts (MW) of electricity is unavailable to the grid as 22 power plants are on forced outage while one other is operating on derated capacity.
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the largest distribution utility in the country, did not implement rotational power interruptions in its franchise area but is on standby to activate the interruptible load program (ILP) if the need arises.
The ILP is a voluntary, demand-side management program of the Energy Regulatory Commission wherein big Meralco customers are requested to use their own generator sets instead of relying on electricity from the grid.
Fifth alert
This is the fifth consecutive time the NGCP has issued a yellow alert status, just a day after the Department of Energy (DOE) said it expects the overall power supply situation to improve this weekend.
鈥淥ver the weekend, we are hoping for several major plants to be back online,鈥� Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said on Friday.
鈥淲e already saw two major plants go back online and we hope the other plants remain unaffected and perform to their optimal performance,鈥� he added.
Irma Exconde, director of the DOE鈥檚 Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, said the total capacity of power plants on forced outage to date more than doubled as opposed to the average 700 MW recorded in the last four years.