THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed Visayas on red and yellow alert status on Friday, April 19, 2024.
In its advisory at 2:35 p.m. the Visayas grid was elevated to red alert status from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a subsequent downgrade to yellow alert from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. due to thin power supply.
“The Visayas grid was upgraded to Red Alert status due to higher forecasted demand in Visayas and Mindanao, resulting in less power shared by Mindanao through the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection,” the NGCP said.
A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.
The peak demand is projected at 2,504 megawatts (MW) with available capacity of 2,484 MW as 18 power plants are on forced outage, while 10 others are running on derated capacities, for a total of 757.7 MW unavailable to the grid.
At 7 p.m. on Friday, NGCP announced it may implement manual load dropping (MLD) in the following areas to maintain the integrity of the power system.
MLD means intentionally turning off power to certain areas or customers during times when there’s too much demand for electricity.
In Luzon, NGCP said MLD may be implemented from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m by Nuvelco (parts of Nueva Vizcaya); Canoreco (parts of Camarines Norte); Quezelco I (parts of Quezon Province); and Penelco (parts of Bataan)
Power utilities in the Visayas may also implement MLD from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. These are Cebeco I, II and III (parts of Cebu Province); Meco (parts of Mactan Island); Visayan Electric (parts of Cebu City); Ceneco (parts of Negros Occidental); Noneco and Noceco (parts of Negros Occidental); Noreco I and II parts of Negros Oriental; Soleco (Southern Leyte); Leyeco II and V (parts of Leyte); Samelco II (parts of Samar); Esamelco (Eastern Samar); Norsamelco (Northern Samar); More (parts of Iloilo City); Akelco (parts of Aklan); Anteco (parts of Antique); Capelco (parts of Capiz); Ileco II and III (parts of Iloilo Province); and Guimelco (parts of Guimaras).
NGCP said the MLD schedule may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections.
The power transmission firm encourages everyone to exercise prudence in using electricity. / KOC