THE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said it met with the Department of Energy (DoE) to adjust the power outlook following the declaration of a yellow alert last week.
“We’re still in the process of assessing and adjusting (the forecast) after the sudden spike in temperature on March 5. So as soon as we have that revised projection, considering all the factors, we will get back to you,” NGCP Spokesperson Cynthia P. Alabanza said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Ms. Alabanza said that the company will also work with power generators and distribution utilities next week to arrive at possible solutions and contingency plans to avoid disruptions to the power supply.
On March 5, the NGCP raised a yellow alert over the Luzon grid as demand spiked with the hot weather, with capacity also stretched by forced outages in some power plants. Unavailable because of unplanned outages totaled 3,362 megawatts (MW).
“With NGCP’s implementation of rapid assessment on grid stability, optimization of remaining available power, and continuous real-time monitoring and coordination with affected plants, the power situation did not escalate into a red alert,” the grid operator said.
A yellow alert is issued when the power supply-demand balance falls below safety margins.
Peak demand for the year was recorded on March 6 at 12,467 MW, up 5% compared with the DoE-approved GOP (Grid Operating Program), which had forecast demand of 11,870 MW that day.
For 2025, the Department of Energy forecast peak demand of 14,769 MW for Luzon, 3,111 MW for the Visayas, and 2,789 MW for Mindanao.
Meanwhile, the NGCP cautioned the public that while power supply “seems sufficient on paper,” unplanned outages have been the primary cause of power interruptions.
“While NGCP has complied with the DoE directive on the procurement of ancillary services (AS) through competitive selection process and payment of AS procured through the AS Reserve Market, the unplanned outages cause all power dispatched through the transmission system to be used for energy consumption,” the grid operator said.
“The contingency and dispatchable ancillary services will have been depleted and already running and dispatched as ‘energy’ for use by the consumers, and no longer reserved for ancillary services, since the contingency for which they were procured has already occurred,” it added.
A shortfall in supply, should that occur, means that while all available generators are running, including those contracted by NGCP for AS, the existing supply is still insufficient to meet demand, the company said.
Ancillary services are tapped by grid operators to support the transmission of power from generators to consumers to maintain reliable operations. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera