Philippines: Power cut in parts of Metro Manila, Calabarzon due to transmission line problem

Philippines: Power cut in parts of Metro Manila, Calabarzon due to
transmission line problem

SYSTEM operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) issued a
"red alert" status on Tuesday after a transmission line tripped and left the
Luzon grid without the required contingency electricity reserve.

NGCP said its 230-kilovolt Batangas-Makban line 1 tripped at 12:46 p.m.
"causing the isolation of power plants with a combined capacity of 1,030 MW
[megawatts]."

"The loss of power prompted the grid operator to put the Luzon grid on red
alert from 2:00 p.m.," it said, while line personnel were immediately
deployed to investigate the incident.

Privately owned NGCP said it was able to restore 100 MW as of 2:11 p.m. and
another 265 MW as of 2:53 p.m.

Separately, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said the emergency outage of the
transmission line would cause rotational power interruption in some of its
franchise areas in Metro Manila and in the region of Calabarzon (Cavite,
Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon).

Electricity was expected to be cut in the identified areas between 1:00 p.m.
and 5:00 p.m. yesterday.

The power supply shortage prompted the tentative manual load dropping, a
mechanism used to distribute limited supply.

The isolated plants were First Gas Power Corp's 540-MW natural gas-fired
plant in Santa Rita, Batangas, and First Gen Corp.'s 97-MW Avion and the
414-MW San Gabriel facilities, also in Batangas.

The San Gabriel gas-fired power plant is suited for "mid-merit" operations
as it adjusts its electricity output as demand varies throughout the day.
The Avion open-cycle "peaking" power plant runs when there is a high demand.
Both plants just started their commissioning phase early this year.

NGCP issues a red alert status when the contingency reserve is zero, a
generation deficiency exists, or when there is a critical loading or
imminent overloading in the transmission system.

Contingency reserve is the capacity allocated to immediately answer any
reduction of supply due to the loss of the largest generating unit online.

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Ref:
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Nation&title=power-cut-in-pa
rts-of-metro-manila-calabarzon-due-to-transmission-line-problem&id=133061

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com