MANILA - The Luzon power grid will be on red alert from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, which could lead to power interruptions, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines spokesperson Atty. Cynthia Alabanza said.

The NGCP said in a social media post that 7 plants are on "forced outage," while 3 others are "on derated capacities," or have their maximum output lowered, depleting the Luzon grid by 3,627 megawatts.

Luzon grid status, 12 September 2022:

Yellow Alert
9:00AM-1:00PM
4:00PM-9:00PM

Red Alert
1:00PM-4:00PM

Available Capacity – 10,727MW
Peak Demand – 10,585MW

7 plants are on forced outage, while 3 others are on derated capacities, for a total of 3,627MW lost from the grid.

— NGCP (@NGCP_ALERT) September 12, 2022

The Luzon grid needs 10,585 megawatts today, a requirement which varies relative to consumer demand. This is apart from the NGCP requirement of an additional 4 percent and another 1,300 megawatts to ensure supply stability across the grid.

"Ang available lang ho natin ngayon is 10,700 [megawatts]. So ang pang-balanse, plus 'yung konsumo, plus 'yung kailangan ng NGCP para mainam ang pagpapatakbo at hindi maramdaman ang pagkukurap-kurap ng kuryente ay kulang na kulang na po talaga," Alabanza said.

(We only have 10,700 megawatts available today, this is not enough to meet the cumulative demand and extra supply needed for a stable grid.)

The power grid is under yellow alert where power interruptions may be imminent from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"Tinitignan ang datos na ipinasa ng technical [team] namin, marami hong naka-forced outage, o 'yung tinatawag na biglaang pagtirik ng mga planta," Alabanza said.

Apart from the outages and the plants with derated capacities, the transmission system tripped yesterday, she explained.

"Ang mag transmission system ay parang ordinaryong makina po 'yan, tulad ng kotse at refrigierator na minsanang talagang pumapalya o kailangan ng regular maintenance," Alabanza said.

(Many plants are under forced outage. Plants are like any other machine which may encounter outages and require maintenance from time to time.)

"Inaasahan natin an bumalik siya before 12 [noon] today, pero hindi pa sigurado so napilitan tayo na mag-issue ng alert status," she added.

(We hope to restore the grid to full capacity by 12 noon, but we have raised the alert in case this does not happen.)

"On-going po ang tinatawag nilang synchronization o 'yung muling pagpasok sa sistema ng transmission. Pag naging successful po iyan, baka i-lift namin ang alert status today," Alabanza explained.

(Once synchronization is successful, we will be able to lift the alert status.)

Meanwhile, there is no scheduled rotational interruption yet as of 1:01 p.m. but they are closing monitoring updates from the NGCP, Meralco Spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.

In the meantime, the NGCP advised mindful electrical consumption and avoid activities which require heavy electricity use to prevent the overloading the limited power supply.

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