Luzon grid under yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon — NGCP

The Luzon power grid is under yellow alert on Wednesday afternoon due to forced outage and derated capacity of several plants, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) announced.

In an advisory, the NGCP said the yellow alert status in the country’s largest island would be implemented from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

A yellow alert indicates that the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

The  Luzon grid is running at an available capacity of 12,488 megawatts (MW) against a peak demand of 11,829 MW.

The NGCP said that “eight plants have been on forced outage since February, and four other power plants out since 2024; while 16 are running on derated capacities, for a total of 3,362.3 MW unavailable to the grid.”

The grid operator cited the following factors which contributed to the raising of yellow alert:

• Increased in IEMOP's forecast demand: projected load increased from 11,325MW (morning forecast) to 11,829MW (afternoon forecast)
• A significant number of plants on unplanned/forced outages. 

Meanwhile, the NGCP said that the Visayas and Mindanao grids are under normal condition.  

In a separate statement, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said it is monitoring the power situation following the NGCP's declaration of yellow alert on the Luzon grid.

"We advise the public to practice energy efficiency measures to help manage the overall demand. In addition, we are ready to activate the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) if needed,” Meralco spokesperson and Head of Corporate Communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.

ILP is a demand-side management program through which large-load customers are asked to use their generator sets or reduce their operations, instead of drawing power from the grid, to spare households from power interruptions during instances of red alert or when supply is insufficient to meet the demand. — Ted Cordero/RSJ, GMA Integrated News