The Department of Energy is investigating the cause of simultaneous forced outages of power plants that resulted in the unavailability of 4,509 megawatts (MW) of capacity from the Luzon grid.
Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla assured there were no fuel supply constraints after some power generating plants servicing the Luzon Grid went on forced outages on Monday morning.
“We assure the public that the DoE is verifying the cause of the forced outages this morning as there appear to be no fuel supply constraints. A team from the DOE will conduct actual physical spot checks and validate the condition of the transmission lines and the affected power plants,” Lotilla said.
Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon Grid on red alert for interval hours from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday and the yellow alert status from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. due to insufficient reserves and capacity.
NGCP said about 3,448MW of power capacity was not available. Power plants on forced outage include GNPower Dinginin 1 – (668MW), Calaca 2 (300MW), Masinloc 2 (344MW), Masinloc 3 – (335MW), Sual 1 (647MW), Sual 2 (647MW), Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. (460MW) and Avion 1 (47MW).
Meanwhile, several generators with a combined capacity of 398MW are now on planned outages.
These are Angat Main Unit 4 (50MW), Angat AUX Unit 1 (6MW), Angat AUX Unit 3 (6MW), SLTEC I (123MW), Makban 4 (63MW) and SLPGC 1 (150MW).
Several power plants were also operating on a derated basis or below capacity, namely GMEC 2 (derated by 31MW), MSLC1 (derated by 190MW), SLTEC 2 -(derated by 6MW), San Gabriel (derated by 70MW), Limay 8 (derated by 120MW), Magat (derated by 228MW), GNPD 2 (derated by 18MW). NGCP placed the total power plant deration at 663MW.
“Many power plants went on forced outage. Some plants were derated. This was compounded by the tripping of the transmission system yesterday (Sunday), and when it tripped, some plants went offline,” NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said in a TV interview.
DOE said that a yellow alert is placed over the grid when reserves fall below ideal levels.
When supply-demand balance worsens, a red alert, which points to severe power deficiency that may lead to rotating power interruptions, is declared.
No manual load interruptions or rotating brownouts were implemented as Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) was able to tap participants of its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) for possible manual load dropping.
Under the program, the ILP participants may run their facilities to allow more grid capacity to serve other customers.
NGCP previously warned that it may implement Manual Load Dropping (MLD) in several areas on Monday afternoon.
These areas include parts of the franchise areas of Benguet Electric Cooperative, Pampanga Rural Electric Service Cooperative and Pampanga 1 Electric Cooperative), Quezon 1 Electric Cooperative, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), Ilocos Sur Electric Cooperative, Isabela Electric Cooperative, Batangas Electric Cooperative and Sorsogon Electric Cooperative I and II.
Meralco did not implement any MLD or rotating brownouts as they already advised Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants following NGCP’s declaration of yellow and red alerts.
It said ILP participants committed to de-load 260 MW if needed.
NGCP said the MLD schedule may be canceled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections.
NGCP encouraged the public to exercise prudence in using electricity.
Meanwhile, NGCP lifted the red alert for the Luzon grid at 5 p.m.
Monday but the yellow alert remained from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
