Visayas Grid under yellow alert on Friday — NGCP

The Visayas Grid has been placed under yellow alert status for the fifth straight day on Friday, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

The NGCP said that 24 power plants remain either on forced outage or running on derated capacities.

In an advisory issued at 2:45 p.m. Friday, the NGCP said that the yellow alert would be implemented between 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., indicating that the operating margin is not enough to meet the transmission grid's contingency requirement.

The grid's available capacity is at 2,883 megawatts, but the peak demand will reach 2,568 megawatts.

One plant has been on forced outage since 2022, two since 2023, two between January and March 2024, and 13 between April and May 2024, while six are running on derated capacities for a total of 515.1 megawatts unavailable to the grid.

The Department of Energy (DOE) earlier said that more yellow and red alerts were expected in the coming weeks as the country has already exceeded its projected demand amid the extreme heat brought by El Niño.

A red alert, meanwhile, is issued when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid's regulating requirement, the NGCP said. — VDV, GMA Integrated News