By Lenie Lectura - March 6, 2019
A DAY after the Department of
Energy (DOE) said the country will have stable power supply from March to June
this year, the Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert on Tuesday due to
insufficient operating reserve.
“Luzon grid is on yellow alert due
to the unexpected shutdown and limited generation of some power plants and high
power demand,” said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
This is the first yellow alert
notice for the year.
The yellow alert took effect from
11am to 5pm and from 7pm to 9pm. The grid operator said Luzon’s available
capacity stood at 10,115 megawatts while peak demand was at 9,491 MW, leaving
reserves at 624 MW.
A yellow alert is issued when
operating reserves have dropped below the required 647 MW contingency in Luzon,
or equivalent to the largest unit in Luzon, which is the 64-MW coal-fired power
plant in Sual, Pangasinan.
The plants that went on forced
outage are South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (SLTEC 1), 150MW; Malaya 1, 150MW;
Sual 2, 647MW; Asia Pacific Energy Corp. (Apec), 10MW; Calaca 2,
300MW; South Luzon Power Generation Corp. (SLPG 2), 150MW; SLTEC 2, 50MW; SLPG
4, 25MW; Pagbilao 3, 420MW; and San Miguel Consolidated Power Corp. (SMCPC
1), 150MW. In all, 2,0220MW of power-generating capacity was not
delivered to the grid due to the sudden plant outage.
Meanwhile, the capacity of the
following plants was derated: Masinloc 1 from 315MW to 300MW, Masinloc 2 from
344MW to 270MW, and SMCPC 2 from 150MW to 120MW.
The DOE reported the other day that
peak demand in Luzon is expected to happen in May at 11,403 MW.
In the Visayas, power demand is
expected to peak at 2,299 MW. In Mindanao, peak demand could reach 2,130
MW.
The DOE said there is enough supply
to support the rising demand for electricity during the period amid the
possible impact of El Niño.
While El Niño is seen to have the
greatest impact in Luzon due to the number of hydroelectric power plants
(HEPPs) in the area, the grid will continue to be under normal conditions, the
DOE assured.
In the Visayas, power conditions
will likewise be normal given the minimal number of HEPPs and the marginal HEPP
contribution share of 0.6 percent of the dependable capacity in the
region.
Similarly, the Mindanao grid will
also be stable despite having a hydro capacity share of 27.5 percent, due to
the contributing capacities of coal-fired power plants.
DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor
Delola said some 1,272.2MW of new power capacity should be available between
March and July this year. Of this, Luzon is expected to produce 571.2MW of new
power-generating capacity, the Visayas with 300MW and Mindanao with 401MW.
The agency has also rescheduled the
maintenance shutdown of some power plants that are supposed to go offline a
week before and after the May 13 elections.
No comments:
Post a Comment