The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ordered the temporary suspension of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) for the Luzon grid effective 1:05 pm Monday due to insufficient generation capacity after power plants were affected by typhoon Aghon.
The declaration of suspension came after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the country’s system operator (SO), placed the Luzon grid under red alert as the generation capacity failed to meet consumer demand and the regulating requirement of the transmission grid.
This is pursuant to ERC Order on Case No. 2024-017 MC dated April 30, 2024 to mitigate the adverse impact of the red alerts to consumers.
“The Commission is closely monitoring developments in the country’s power situation to ensure the reliability and security of the power system, maintain continuous operations of the generators, and protect the Filipino consumers,” ERC said.
The ERC has directed the Independent Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), operator of the WESM, the trading floor of electricity, and the NGCP to operate the market and the power system according to the applicable provisions of the WESM Rules and the ERC Order dated April 30, 2024.
The ERC said the operations of the WESM shall remain suspended until issuance of a notice of market resumption by the regulator.
This is the second time the ERC suspended WESM operations following the issuance of the ERC order. The regulator first suspended WESM operations in the Luzon and Visayas grids on May 23.
The ERC said that during such period of market suspension, the administered price shall apply, or if a dispatch interval is subject to both a price mitigation (such as the secondary price cap) and the administered price. The lower of the two prices shall apply in the settlement of transactions for such interval.
The NGCP placed the Luzon grid on red and yellow alerts for several hours on Monday as around 4,497.3 megawatts of capacity is unavailable to the grid due to the typhoon Aghon.
Manila Electric Co. said it advised customers enrolled in the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) for their de-loading commitments to help ease the demand in the Luzon grid amid the red and yellow alerts.
“If necessary, we are ready to implement manual load dropping (MLD) or rotational power interruptions as part of our responsibility to manage the system,” Meralco spokesperson and corporate communications head Joe Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco is also reminding the public to continue practicing energy efficiency to help in demand-side management.
NGCP placed the Luzon grid on red alert from 4pm to 10 pm and yellow alert from 1pm to 4 pm and 10pm to 11 pm as available capacity was placed at 12,326 megawatts compared to the peak demand of 11,455MW.
NGCP said three plants have been on forced outage since 2023, two between January and March 2024, and 15 power plants between April and May 2024. Three others have been running on derated capacities, for a total of 4,497.3MW unavailable to the grid.
It said several factors contributed to the raising of red and yellow alert, particularly the forced outage of power plants due to typhoon Aghon namely the Ilijan natural gas plant (600MW), Pagbilao coal plant 1 (382MW), Pagbilao 2 (382MW), & Pagbilao 3 (420MW), San Buenaventura Power Ltd. coal plant (455MW).
Some power plants are also on forced outage such as Masinloc 3 (335MW) due to boiler feed water trouble and Quezon Power Philippines Lts.’s coal plant (460MW) due to broken spring support of turbine combine reheat valve.
Coal-fired power plants are also derated such as Sual 1, Calaca 2, Masinloc 1. NGCP assured that the Visayas and Mindanao grids are in normal condition.
A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement while a yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
Likewise, around 34 power plants went offline on Monday, losing roughly 4,497.3 megawatts of capacity to the Luzon grid due to the typhoon Aghon, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Monday.
Of the 34 plants, 19 power plants in both on-grid and off-grid were affected by typhoon Aghon. The remaining 14 plants were already on outage while some are derated or operating below capacity.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said typhoon Aghon also exposed the vulnerability of the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.
“We have two reception and regasification plans. The two reception facilities for imported LNG are now in operation. This is the first time they are operating during a typhoon season. So, we have some learnings from this experience,” Lotilla said.
“We do look forward to the onshore storage facilities because that will not be as vulnerable to changes in the weather, especially by the typhoon and strong winds. So, we will continue on the supply side to promote additional capacity,” Lotilla said.
Lotilla said the Philippines will be experiencing more and more of these extreme events brought about by climate change, and urged consumers to be responsible by modifying their consumption patterns.
DOE undersecretary Rowena Guevara said that if the situation does not improve, specifically if the plants that went offline because of the typhoon do not come back by next week, “probably we’ll have a red alert also next week.”
DOE said that since typhoon Aghon entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) last May 25, 2024, the 1,200 MW Ilijan power plant was on shutdown as its floating storage unit (FSU) had to be disconnected and relocated for safety reasons.
The Pagbilao Units 1 and 2 with a total capacity of 764 MW and Unit 3 with a capacity of 420 MW also went on shutdown on May 26, due to the typhoon.
Masinloc 3 with a capacity of 335 MW, SBPL with a capacity of 455 MW and Botocan with a capacity of 20.8 MW also went on outage due to the Typhoon.
Kalayaan Unit 4 with a capacity of 180 MW also tripped on Monday morning. The DOE said the Ilijan/Linseed FSU is undergoing berthing and attachment.
Securing the berthing and attachment of loading arms will take around 2 to 3 hours after which the regasification will resume.
It said that due to Ilijan’s shutdown, it will have to undergo 14 to 16 hours of cold start before it can resume full normal operations.
Meanwhile, restoration work is currently ongoing on the lines to the Pagbilao plants and in the other affected plants. Masinloc 3 went online at 7:05 AM and is currently loading at 15 MW.
The DOE said the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) of First Gas continues to supply the grid despite the typhoon.
Detachment of the facility was deemed unnecessary as the threshold did not reach storm Signal Number 2 with a wind speed of 25 knots.
Meanwhile, the DOE said several hydro power plants are derated having been affected adversely by another natural disaster—the El Niño—that brought drought in addition to extreme high temperatures.
Seven hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 440 MW went on forced outage from April to May due to low water level and hydrological constraints.
Four fossil-fueled power plants with a total capacity of 916 MW have been on forced outage due to technical problems aggravated by extreme heat indices.
Four other hydroelectric power plants and two biomass power plants with a total capacity of 34.7 MW have been offline since August 2023 due to insufficient water level and lack of feedstock, respectively.
Another 15.8 MW biomass power plant was on forced outage since May 18, 2024 due to lack of feedstock.