March 5, 2019 | 9:49 pm
RESERVE ENERGY in the Luzon grid
fell below minimum levels on Tuesday, prompting the system operator to issue a
“yellow alert” a day after the Energy department gave its assurance that power
supply is sufficient for the dry season.
Privately-owned National Grid Corp.
of the Philippines (NGCP) said the country’s biggest power grid was placed on
yellow alert between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and again from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00
p.m.
NGCP said available capacity on
Tuesday was at 10,115 megawatts (MW) while peak demand during the day hit 9,491
MW.
“Luzon grid is on yellow alert due
to the unexpected shutdown and limited generation of some power plants, and
high power demand,” the system operator said.
It deferred to the Department of
Energy (DoE) the announcement on which power plants were on an unscheduled
shutdown.
The warning came even before the
expected full impact of the El Niño weather phenomenon in May. The DoE expects
peak demand in Luzon to reach 11,403 MW during that month.
“This is the first yellow alert for
the Luzon grid this year,” NGCP said.
NGCP has several levels of reserve
energy that it uses to stabilize the fluctuating power demanded from the
electricity grid.
A frequency regulating reserve is
the standard operating requirement to maintain a balance between available
capacity and system demand, and should address small variations during normal
operation. The regulating reserve is ideally equivalent to 4% of the demand for
the hour.
On top of the regulating reserve,
NGCP also maintains a contingency reserve that it allocates to immediately
answer any reduction in supply when the largest power generating unit online —
usually at 600 MW — fails to deliver.
Aside from these reserves, the
operator also maintains a dispatchable reserve that is readily available to
replenish lost contingency reserve.
When these reserves fall below ideal
levels, NGCP issues a “yellow alert,” which is downgraded to a “red alert” when
the power supply situation worsens.
The other day, the Department of
Energy (DoE) said it adjusted the output of the hydroelectric power plants
(HEPPs) in Luzon after the forecast “weak” El Niño during the April-June
months. It placed the expected capacity reduction at 30%.
“While El Niño is seen to have the
greatest impact in Luzon due to the number of HEPPs in the area, the grid will
continue to be under normal conditions,” it said.
The DoE also said that in the instance
of forced outages in the Luzon grid, there would be an additional 350-MW
buffer, with a 200-MW “importation” coming from the Visayas grid and 150-MW
coming from the remaining Malaya diesel power plant. — Victor V. Saulon
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