Power strains prompt fresh call for stronger baseload

The consecutive red alerts issued over the Luzon and Visayas grids have prompted fresh calls for stronger, more reliable baseload power capacity.

The Philippine Energy Research and Policy Institute (PERPI), an independent think tank on energy policy and sustainability, said Friday that the latest alerts revealed the urgent need for a more integrated, long-term energy plan as the country expands renewable energy capacity.

“As in the last few years, we have recommended the need for an integrated power plan that balances the integration of renewables with necessary baseload capacities and optimal resource-based energy mix,” PERPI executive board member Jay Layug said. 

“As we scale up renewables, we need to calibrate our power systems to ensure a reliable baseload supply,” he added.

Layug noted that the recent red alerts were caused by multiple factors, including maintenance shutdowns of several fossil fuel-run power plants, high summer demand, and transmission line trippings that isolated generating units.

“The red alert declared in the Luzon and Visayas grids for the past 2 days is nothing new. We have seen this type of occurrence for the last few years during summer peak months,” he said.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) extended red alerts over the Luzon and Visayas grids today as power supply remained insufficient amid multiple plant outages and high demand.

In Luzon, the red alert was extended from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., with available capacity at 12,075 megawatts (MW), below peak demand of 12,927 MW. 

NGCP said 17 plants were on forced outage while 14 were operating on derated capacities, leaving 4,828 MW unavailable to the grid.

The supply shortfall worsened after the tripping of GNPower Dinginin Unit 1, resulting in the loss of 668 MW.

In the Visayas, red alert status was extended from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. as available capacity reached 2,379 MW against peak demand of 2,574 MW. The plant outages and derated operations left 883.1 MW unavailable to the grid.

To determine the root cause of the disturbance, the Department of Energy (DOE) has mobilized the Grid Reliability Task Force (GRTF) to conduct a full technical investigation.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the affected transmission lines carried around 12 percent of Luzon’s supply at the time of the outage.

“An incident of this scale demands full technical disclosure, clear accountability, and immediate corrective action,” Garin said.