Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Luzon power grid stricken with 7th ‘yellow alert’ state in a month



Updated September 30, 2017, 3:01 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

It was not a ‘lucky seven strike’ for Luzon power grid, as it was plunged anew into ‘yellow alert’ or reserve-strained electricity supply condition on Friday (September 29), distressingly while the country was capping its hosting of the 35th ASEAN Ministers Energy Meeting (AMEM) in Pasay City.
From the first declaration of ‘yellow alert’ by system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) last August 30, this is already the seventh time that the biggest power grid had to be pushed into supply breaking point – in just a stretch of a month.
On Friday, NGCP had to place the grid on such state from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., as the available power capacity had been drastically cut to just 9,894 megawatts due to the planned and forced outages of seven generating power units that resulted in capacity loss of 2,377 megawatts.
The generating facilities on planned shutdowns were: the 450MW San Gabriel; 600MW Ilijan; 55MW Makiling-Banahaw; 647MW Sual 2; while those on forced outages had been: Kalayaan Unit 3 with 180MW; Kalayaan Unit 4 with 180MW; and San Lorenzo gas plant Unit 1 at 255MW capacity.
As of 1:00 p.m. though, the Department of Energy (DoE) advised that the ‘yellow alert status’ in the grid had already been lifted “due to sufficient operating reserve brought about by actual system demand.” Net reserve so far improved to 653MW as of press time; from the decimated 357MW earlier in the day.
According to DoE data also, it indicated that available capacity on Friday was at 9,894MW, hence, if that is reckoned with the installed capacity being brandished in their supply-demand outlook, many of the power facilities could have been experiencing very high degree of “unreliability” – a disconcerting precept considering that this year’s ASEAN theme revolved around resiliency and sustainability of power supply.
Industry stakeholders then are prodding DoE to ‘come clean’ as to the real state of the power plants; and why its promised audit of their operations since the initial months of the Duterte administration had not been started until now.
Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) already sounded off developments on “sudden demand increase” propelled mainly by boom in industrial activities as well as the increasing consumption of households.
It remains to be explained, however, how all these are being factored in into the planning strategies of the energy department – primarily on its invitation to investors for fresh capital outlay to bring the country’s installed power capacity to 43,765MW by year 2040.
Fast-tracking the entry of new power projects also remained a big puzzle as the department has yet to find its way into operationalizing and concretizing Executive Order No. 30, a Presidential order streamlining the permitting processes for energy investments.

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