Transmission operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon due to the tripping of the 417-megawatt San Gabriel natural gas power plant in Batangas.
NGCP said in its advisory the Luzon grid is on yellow alert from 3pm to 9pm as available capacity reached 13,198 megawatts compared to a peak demand of 12,028MW.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
Prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market spike when there is tight power supply, especially during cases of red and yellow alerts.
NGCP said one power plant has been on forced outage since 2023, eight between January and May 2024, and six power plants between June and July 2024; while 6 are running on derated capacities, for a total of 1,652.7MW unavailable to the grid.
“Factor that contributed to the raising of yellow alert: 1. Tripping of San Gabriel (417.4MW),” it said.
The Visayas and Mindanao grids are under normal condition.
Meanwhile, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said it is closely monitoring the situation, but has advised the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants to be on standby in case the situation escalates to red alert.
“We urge the public to implement energy conservation and efficiency practices to help manage the overall demand. We will give updates as soon as needed,” Meralco spokesperson and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.
