The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) yesterday placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert status from 3pm to 4pm due to insufficient reserves.
The NGCP said available capacity was placed at 15,167 megawatts (MW) compared to a peak demand of 13,714MW.
“Four plants have been on forced outage since 2023, 3 between January and March 2024, and 9 since April 2024, while one other is running on derated capacity, for a total of 1406.8MW unavailable to the grid,” the NGCP said.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
Meanwhile, energy think tank the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) in a report said Luzon’s tightest period will be within the last two weeks of May (from May 13 to 26).
“Considering the duration of hydroelectric plants, sufficient reserve levels will largely depend on committed capacities being delivered on time and/or preventing forced outages of power plants outside GOMP (Grid Operating Management Protocol)," the ICSC, in its Reviewing the Adequacy of Power Supply for April to June 2024 report, said.
“Restricting the high voltage direct current (HVDC) export to Visayas could contribute to maintaining the operating reserve levels in the Luzon grid,” ICSC said.
It said the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) could augment the power supply in the Luzon grid during yellow or red alerts.
“However, utilizing this option would indicate that the power supply situation has already deteriorated,” it said.
ICSC said consumers can contribute to demand-side management through energy efficiency and conservation such as shifting the use of energy-intensive activities to non-peak hours, and upgrading to more efficient technologies at home and at work.
“The recurring issue of power supply deficiency highlights the vulnerability of the current grid system, that it is centralized and baseload-centric,” ICSC said.
“Thus, there is an urgent need for an energy transition towards flexible and distributed energy sources that would enable a greater integration of renewable energy into the grid and ensure a resilient and sustainable electricity supply for consumers,” it said.
ICSC said that while this transition will take time, it is crucial to prioritize flexibility and decentralization in system planning and policy-making to facilitate this necessary transition.