Consumers in Luzon and the Visayas faced a third day of rotating brownouts on Friday as plant outages and high temperatures continued to strain the power grid.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon grid under red alert from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. and under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Available capacity in Luzon stood at 13,508 megawatts (MW), below the peak demand of 13,881 MW. The NGCP said 4,160 MW remained unavailable to the grid.
Sixteen power plants have been on forced outage since May, while several others have been offline since as early as 2019. Fourteen plants are also operating at derated capacities.
The NGCP said the Tayabas-Ilijan and Dasmariñas-Ilijan 500-kilovolt lines were restored on May 13 at 2:44 p.m. and 4:52 p.m., respectively. Authorities are awaiting the resynchronization of affected power plants to the grid.
In the Visayas, the grid was placed under red alert from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Available capacity in the Visayas reached 2,441 MW against a peak demand of 2,661 MW. The NGCP said 11 power plants in the region have been on forced outage since May, resulting in 841.3 MW of unavailable capacity.
A red alert is declared when available power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the grid’s regulating requirement, while a yellow alert indicates that operating reserves are below contingency requirements.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy (DOE) directed the NGCP to explain a transmission line trip that isolated the Ilijan Gas-to-Power Complex from the Luzon grid.
The DOE said its technical teams are independently verifying the status of affected generating units and transmission facilities and assessing whether the NGCP and generation companies complied with dispatch instructions and restoration timelines.
The department said it would continue coordinating with the NGCP, the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, and distribution utilities to help restore supply adequacy.
