THE Visayas grid has been placed under yellow alert for a third consecutive day after power plants went on forced outage, limiting the system’s contingency reserves, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

In an advisory early Wednesday, the NGCP said the yellow alert was raised over the Visayas grid between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Peak demand was 2,538 megawatts (MW) while available capacity was 2,369 MW.

The grid operator attributed the declaration of the yellow alert to high system demand and several plants either derated in capacity or going on forced outage, with 725.2 MW lost to the grid.

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera