Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 29) – Some areas of Panay Island will continue to experience power outages as system disturbances continue to plague the Visayas grid, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
Shortly before 9 a.m. on Saturday, the NGCP reported another disturbance in the Visayas grid that resulted in the disengagement of multiple Panay power plants from the Visayas grid’s transmission system.
“Parts of the franchise areas of AKELCO , CAPELCO, ANTECO, MORE Power, ILECO I, ILECO II, and ILECO III lost power,” the NGCP said.
This comes after the NGCP detected two disturbances to the Visayas grid which have since been resolved: first on Thursday, when a distribution utility-owned line tripped, causing power plants to disengage from the transmission system; and second on Friday, which was triggered by the tripping of a generation facility.
Due to the disturbances, the NGCP placed the Visayas grid – which includes the Panay, Cebu, Negros, Leyte, Samar, and Bohol island grids — on red alert on April 27, which was later downgraded to yellow alert on April 28.
Yellow alert means that a grid’s “operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s regulating and contingency requirements.”
The NGCP said that it would implement manual load dropping or rotational brownouts throughout its coverage areas to maintain the integrity of the grid’s power system.
“Not all of the affected power plants have successfully synchronized to the transmission system, which is the direct cause of the power interruptions some areas in the island of Panay still endure,” the NGCP said in an earlier advisory.
The Visayan Electric Company likewise said on Friday that its coverage areas should expect rotational brownouts.
The NGCP said that all transmission facilities affected by the April 27 and 28 disturbances had been restored.
However, the NGCP has yet to resolve the April 29 disturbance which currently affects the Panay power plants.
“NGCP is in constant communication with other affected power plants and distribution utilities to ensure that when ready, the remaining power plants are able to synchronize and provide power to transmission system connected distribution utilities/electric cooperatives,” it added.
Meanwhile, the NGCP’s power situation outlook for the Visayas grid on April 29 stands at an available generating capacity of 2,277 megawatts (MW), a system peak demand of 2,029 MW, and an operating margin of 249 MW.
