Luzon’s power reserves are expected to remain thin today, even after system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines lifted the yellow alert status late Thursday.
A yellow alert status means the power grid is vulnerable to additional power disruptions, which could trigger a red alert and force the government to implement rotating brownouts.
Luzon’s power reserves have fluctuated due to the shutdown of several power plants capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
As of 6 a.m. Thursday, the Luzon grid’s power reserves slipped to 101 MW from 366 MW Wednesday. National Grid lifted the yellow alert status in the afternoon, with the reserves rising to as high as around 620 MW Thursday evening.
System peak demand hit 7,434 MW Thursday against the capacity of just 7,535 MW for Luzon. Visayas power reserves were higher on Thursday at 497 MW but Mindanao’s remain short of 224 MW.
Energy Undersecretary Josefina Asirit told reporters several power plant were not running, including the 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant, which is stocking up on fuel in preparation for a maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya gas field next month.
Asirit said the First Gas power plants encountered problems Wednesday and went back online 5 a.m. Thursday to their full capacity of 1,500 MW.
“We expect reserves to remain thin [Friday] because around 1,000 MW of capacity are still out,” she said.
Some of the plants that were derated or have lower capacity include one unit of the 1,200 MW Sual coal-fired power plant. One unit of the Sual power plant is running only at 408 MW against its original 600-MW load due to a problem with the flue gas desulfurization machine.
One unit of the 600-MW Calaca power plant is also down, which means only 300 MW are available to the grid, due to a boiler leak problem. The 735-MW Pagbilao plant in Quezon is running only at 380 MW after one unit underwent maintenance shutdown while the 275-MW Tiwi geothermal power plant is down to 60 MW due to low steam supply.
The government has been wooing investors to put up baseload power plants to address the country’s growing power generation needs. Only the 600-MW coal-fired power plant on GN Power Ltd. is scheduled to come online toward the end of this year.
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