The Luzon Grid was placed on Yellow Alert on midday Wednesday, as several power plants went on forced outage, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
Net operating margin from 12NN-4PM only stood at 32 megawatts (MW), the grid firm said. Demand at was at 10,514MW, as compared to supply, which stood at 10,935MW.
A total of 1,366MW was shaved from the grid. Among the plants that went offline were Unit 2 of the Sual coal power plant in Pangasinan (590MW); Unit 1 of the GNPower Mariveles (316MW) and Unit 3 of the Limay plant (54MW), both in Bataan; Unit 2 of the 150MW Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation (SLPGC) and Unit 2 of the 121MW South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation (SLTEC) plants, both in Calaca, Batangas.
In addition, two plants had de-rated capacities.
The Yellow Alert was lifted at 345PM. Such an alert is issued when the Contingency Reserve (CR) is less than the capacity of the grid’s largest generator. For Luzon, the CR is 647MW — the installed capacity of both units of the Sual plant.
Luzon was last placed on Yellow Alert in July.
Sual Unit 2 was one of the largest contributors to the Luzon Red Alerts from May 31-June 2. Team Energy, which owns the plant, is one of at least eight power generating companies (gencos) facing fines for exceeding its forced outage days limit leading to the Red Alerts.
Semirara Mining and Power Corporation-owned SLPGC also faces penalties for the Red Alerts.
SMC Global Power Holdings, San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC) genco, owns the Limay plant, while AC Energy controls SLTEC.