The Luzon Grid reached its highest peak demand this year at 11,513 megawatts (MW) on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP).
IEMOP, the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), said that the increasing demand in the grid was due to the easing of community quarantine restrictions in the country’s largest island, which hosts the country’s major load centers.
The highest peak demand so far for the year almost surpassed the 2021 actual peak demand of 11,601MW, which was recorded on May 28.
“Likewise, the peak demand recorded for the month has already surpassed its counterpart figures during the same month last 2020 which was during the pre-pandemic period,” IEMOP said.
Despite the increasing trend, IEMOP said that the supply remains sufficient to meet the demand system requirements.
“During the observed highest peak demand [on March 22], there was around 12,136MW supply in the Luzon Grid and 2,396MW in the Visayas Grid,” IEMOP said.
As of March 23, the average system supply available in the Luzon Grid stood at 11,719MW.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) had warned of thin power supply in Luzon during the summer. Based on NGCP data, the first two weeks of May – which cover the presidential elections on May 9 – may be sandwiched by Yellow and Red alerts if power plants go on forced outages.
Currently, WESM only covers the Luzon and Visayas Grids. Its launch in Mindanao was delayed pending the completion of NGCP’s Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project.