Manila: 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.
According to Philippines News Agency, a yellow alert is in effect from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., as reported by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP). The NGCP estimated the available capacity at 2,410 megawatts (MW) with a peak demand of 2,502 MW. Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI) remain on forced outage, and electricity imports from Mindanao continue to be low due to coal plant outages and high demand.
The NGCP highlighted that eight power plants in the Visayas are on forced outage, while 20 others have been unavailable since 2021. Additionally, 13 power plants are operating at derated capacities, resulting in a total loss to the grid of 836.9 MW.
A yellow alert is declared by NGCP when a grid's operating margin falls short of the contingency requirement. In comparison, a red alert is issued when the supply is insufficient to meet both consumer demand and the grid's regulating requirement. Authorities have stated that measures such as installing battery-powered generating sets are being taken to address the situation in the Visayas grid.
