THE high demand that cannot be met by supply due to the sustained unavailability of several power plants again resulted in the issuance of a red alert for the Visayas grid from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
A yellow alert, meanwhile, is in effect from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
The NGCP estimated the available capacity at 2,410 megawatts (MW) and peak demand at 2,502 MW, noting that Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI) remain on forced outage, and electricity imports from Mindanao remain low due to coal plant outages and high demand.
It said eight power plants in the Visayas are on forced outage while 20 others have been unavailable since 2021.
With 13 others working at derated capacities, total loss to the grid has reached 836.9 MW.
The NGCP raises a yellow alert when a grid’s operating margin is short of the contingency requirement, while a red alert is issued when supply is insufficient to meet both consumer demand and the grid’s regulating requirement.
Authorities have said that measures are being taken, such as installing battery-powered generating sets, to address the situation in the Visayas grid. (PNA)
