Accra:Visayas A red alert was raised over the Visayas grid on Thursday, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., as power supply remains low. A subsequent yellow alert was also in place from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
According to Philippines News agency, the available capacity is around 2,608 megawatts (MW), while peak demand is forecast to reach 2,581MW, as per an advisory from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The NGCP raises a yellow alert when capacity in a grid is short against contingency requirements, while a red alert is issued when supply is inadequate to meet both the demand and the grid's regulating requirements.
Primary factors for the low capacity in the grid during the day include the unavailability of generating units from major coal-fired power plants, namely Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) and Unit 1 of Kepco SPC Power Corporation (KSPC). The import from the Mindanao grid remains limited due to planned outages of Unit 4 of GNPower Kauswagan (GNPK) and Unit 2 of Therma South Inc. (TSI), as well as the unplanned outage of Unit 2 of the Pulangi 4 hydroelectric power plant.
NGCP reported that a total of five power plants in the Visayas are unavailable this October alone, while 16 others have been non-operational since 2021. Additionally, 21 power plants are working on derated capacities, reducing the grid's capacity by approximately 599.1MW.
