OVER 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power-generating capacity was shaved off from the Luzon grid as a result of a transmission-line tripping incident, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said on Tuesday. The grid operator’s Batangas-Makban 230-kV (kiloVolt) Line 1 tripped at 12:46 p.m., causing the isolation of power plants with a combined capacity of 1,030 MW.
The loss of power prompted NGCP to put the Luzon grid on red alert from 2 p.m.
Restoration is ongoing, but 100 MW of power were already restored as of 2:11 p.m.
Line personnel were already on line patrol to investigate the root cause of the incident, NGCP said.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), which serves over 5 million customers in its franchise area, including Metro Manila, said it had to implement a manual load dropping (MLD) schedule starting at around 1 p.m.
It said the tripping of a transmission line resulted in power deficiency in the Meralco franchise area as supply from three power plants serving Luzon grid was affected. These are San Lorenzo 1 and 2, Avion and San Gabriel. These are all gas plants of the Lopez-led First Gen Corp.
The utility firm said the MLD schedule would last until 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
