Energy chief probes outages in PH grids
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin ordered on Friday a full investigation into the massive transmission line trippings that triggered widespread power interruptions in Luzon and worsened supply conditions in the Visayas grid.
Garin said the outage involved two major 500-kilovolt (kV) transmission corridors carrying roughly 12 percent of Luzon’s electricity supply.
“An incident of this scale demands full technical disclosure, clear accountability and immediate corrective action,” Garin said.
The Energy chief ordered the Grid Reliability Task Force (GRTF) to investigate the May 13 tripping of the Tayabas-Ilijan and Ilijan-Dasmariñas 500-kV transmission lines operated by National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), the incident disconnected 2,462.1 megawatts (MW) of natural gas capacity from the Luzon grid, leading to widespread outages across the island.
Within minutes of the transmission disturbance, Ilijan Blocks A and B and several units of Excellent Energy Resources Inc. were disconnected from the grid.
The DOE said the disruption also prevented electricity transfers from Luzon to the Visayas at a time when the Visayas grid was already under critical supply conditions.
The agency said the GRTF—composed of the DOE, Energy Regulatory Commission, Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines, TransCo and PSALM—would conduct a technical assessment to determine the root cause of the disturbance.
The DOE earlier sought complete operational data, incident reports and technical findings from NGCP.
The investigation came as NGCP extended red and yellow alert status over both the Luzon and Visayas grids on Friday due to insufficient power supply.
In an advisory issued at 11:45 a.m., NGCP said the Luzon grid would remain under red alert from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., while yellow alert status would cover 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. to midnight.
Available capacity in Luzon stood at 12,075 MW against peak demand of 12,927 MW.
No explanation
NGCP said the situation worsened after the tripping of GNPower Dinginin Unit 1, which removed 668 MW from the grid.
A total of 4,828 MW also remained unavailable due to forced outages and derated capacities of multiple power plants, but the NGCP did not say what steps would be taken or why it did not act sooner to address supply shortages that it was already apparently aware.
The grid operator said 17 power plants were on forced outage since the start of the month, while several others had been offline for months and years.
Another 14 plants were operating on derated capacities, resulting in a total of 4,828 MW unavailable to the Luzon grid.
NGCP said additional plant trippings and higher forecast demand further aggravated the supply deficiency in the Visayas.
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), which supplies most of Metro Manila and its environs, said it secured around 250 MW of deloading commitments from participants under its Interruptible Load Program to help stabilize the Luzon grid.
Still, Meralco warned that manual load dropping, or rotating power interruptions, might still be necessary if supply conditions deteriorate further.
The company said Thursday’s red alert affected around 900,000 customers across Metro Manila and nearby provinces before electricity service was fully restored late at night.
NGCP noted that the Tayabas-Ilijan and Dasmariñas-Ilijan 500-kV transmission lines had already been restored earlier this week, although affected plants had yet to fully resynchronize with the grid.
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