The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) declared a yellow alert for the Visayas grid from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday due to thin power reserves.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirements.
NGCP said the Visayas’ available capacity was 2,528 megawatts as of 1:30 p.m., compared to a peak demand of 2,475 MW.
The corporation noted that 11 plants have been on forced outage from April to August, with six other power plants out since 2023. Additionally, six power plants are running on derated capacities, making a total of 733.5 MW unavailable to the grid.
Among the factors that contributed to the yellow alert were an 88 MW increase in forecasted demand and a 30 MW decrease in power imported from Mindanao due to an additional plant outage.
The Luzon and Mindanao grids, however, remained under normal conditions.
NGCP also raised yellow alerts for the Visayas grid on August 1 and August 4 due to low reserve levels.
The company said it continues to improve its grid response capabilities by conducting annual blackout drills, which align the contingency response of every player in the energy sector, particularly generation plants.
NGCP operates the country’s power transmission highway and serves as the grid system operator.
Alena Mae S. Flores
