By Joann Villanueva
The unavailability of generating units at three major coal-fired power plants in the Visayas continues to result in low capacity, prompting a yellow alert for the grid from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) estimated the grid’s available capacity at 2,565 megawatts (MW), which is inadequate to meet contingency requirements as peak demand is forecast to reach 2,456 MW.
This comes as Unit 1 of Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI), Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC), and Unit 2 of KEPCO SPC Power Corp. (KSPC) remain on forced outage.
The NGCP said 12 power plants became unavailable this September alone, while 20 others have been on forced outage since as far back as 2021.
It added that 17 plants are operating at derated capacities, bringing the total capacity loss to 926.6 MW.
A yellow alert is issued when a grid’s capacity falls short of its contingency requirements.
