TAGUIG CITY - The Department of Energy (DOE) is continuously monitoring the supply and demand situation in the Luzon Grid which is on "RED ALERT" from 10AM to 5PM and 6PM to 10PM, and "YELLOW ALERT" from 9AM to 10AM, 5PM to 6PM, and 11PM to 12AM.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND FIGURES
As of 6:00 PM today, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported an actual peak demand of 11,312 MW. The total available capacity was projected to be 11,322 MW as of 1:00 PM.
*Kindly refer to the accompanying table for the breakdown of powerplants in the Luzon Grid on Outage as of today (1 June 2021).*
• Total Planned outage = 435 MW
• Total Unplanned / Forced Outage = 1,579 MW
• Total Major Derating = 484 MW (Ilijan’s reduced output to 716 MW due to ongoing Malampaya gas restriction from 835 MW in the previous week)
In addition to the plants on outage yesterday, GMEC Coal-Fired Power Plant Unit 2 (316 MW) has been declared unavailable due to a suspected boiler tube leak. The plant is expected to be back online by 8 June 2021.
In order to address the high system demand in the Luzon grid and due to the increased ambient temperature because of the summer season, MERALCO called out its interruptible load program (ILP) participants to voluntarily deload from the grid during the red alert. As of 11:30AM, 92 participating establishments have confirmed willingness to deload under ILP, equivalent to a capacity of 195.73MW.
MANUAL LOAD DROP OR POWER INTERRUPTION
Attached is the list of Distribution Utilities that implemented MLD from 11:00AM up to 3:00 PM fore reference of the areas affected by the rotating brownout (See attached matrix).
In order to maintain a balanced system, NGCP initially listed the following areas today, June 1, that will implement Manual Load Dropping (MLD)to maintain the integrity of the power system:
6:00-7:00PM:
ISELCO I (parts of Isabela)
PELCO II (parts of Pampanga)
BATELEC II (parts of Batangas)
APEC (parts of Albay)
CASURECO III (parts of Camarines Sur)
MERALCO (parts of Metro Manila)
Schedule may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections.
MARKET INTERVENTION
Market intervention was declared by the System Operator starting 1048H and is still in effect for RTD Trading Interval 1600H due to the implementation of MLD (generation deficiency).
WAY FORWARD
The DOE continues to monitor the power situation and will submit factual information for the consumers and the enforcement agencies, including the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Philippine Competition Commission and the Department of Justice, considering its long term strategy of addressing the power supply and demand situation during the summer season. It continues to remind the distribution utilities and the system operator of its contracting obligations to address the needed capacity increases for a reliable power system for its consumers.
While the Department is working towards resolving these persistent issues, it is not something that could be accomplished overnight.
Among the steps that the DOE have taken include:
• The Competitive Selection Process policy so that Distribution Utilities may already bid out their requirements for new investments to come in.
• The introduction of amendments to the market to allow more transparency in sending out investment signals.
• The moratorium on new coal-fired power plants to emphasize the need for system flexibility.
• Ancillary Services policies so that NGCP will contract on a firm basis all AS requirements given that they need to do forward contracting of these requirements and should not rely solely on what is available in the system.
• The introduction of the Reserves Market to co-optimize the utilization of energy and reserves. This is an additional avenue for investments.
Lastly, being a performance issue, the DOE likewise calls on the ERC to look into these outages and exercise its regulatory functions as the energy family continues to work together to ensure the continuity of power services during these challenging times.
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