The forced outages (FOs) of the 344-megawatt (MW) Masinloc Coal-Fired Power Plant Unit 2 (MCFPPU2) and Team Energy Pagbilao Coal Units (TEPCU) 1 and 2 today (4 June) triggered a Yellow Alert in the Luzon Grid from 12:01PM to 3:00PM.
As of this update, SMC Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. is still assessing the root cause of MCFPPU2's outage. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines' Significant Incident Report indicated that the outage was probably caused by an auxiliary power supply problem.
Meanwhile, TEPCU 1's FO was due to excitation fault alarm, and a boiler tube leak caused TEPCU 2's outage.
Reserves have already been thin in the recent days due to the following:
• Since 2 June 2020, Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX) has been implementing supply restrictions to natural gas-fired power plants to normalize pressure in the pipeline.
The high level of coal-fired power plant outages in the past couple of months contributed to the continuous operations of natural gas-fired power plants, increasing demand for Malampya gas. This has drastically reduced landing pressure in the 504-kilometer line pack from the off-shore gas supply facility in Palawan to the Batangas on-shore facility.
SPEX's Malampaya gas supply restrictions have resulted to a total of 520 MW restricted/curtailed capacity.
The Department of Energy (DOE), through its Energy Resource Development and Electric Power Industry Management Bureaus, have been coordinating with SPEX, and are waiting for the official statement on the gas restriction, as well as the schedule of its lifting.
• Other generating facilities that are also on FO, resulting to a total of 2,173 MW dependable capacity lost. There include SMC Consolidated Power Corporation Limay Coal Unit 1 (150 MW), San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Coal (500 MW), Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. Coal Unit 2 (150 MW), and SMC Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. Unit 3 (335 MW).
*** KINDLY REFER TO TABLE NO. 2 FOR THE SUMMARY OF POWER PLANTS ON FORCED OUTAGE AND RESTRICTED NATURAL GAS OUTPUT ***
We will continue to release further updates as soon as the relevant information becomes available.
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