New capacity boost for Visayas grid eyed

CEBU CITY, Philippines — After a couple of days of free yellow alerts, energy stakeholders expressed optimism that the Visayas grid may restabilize soon.

But should the situation not improve, the Department of Energy (DOE) is mulling another round of power augmentation.

The energy department on Tuesday, July 28, announced that the planned reactivation of Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) this August remains on track.

READ MORE: Grid outlook: Another week of tight power margins for Visayas grid

Battery energy storage systems

Additionally, they are expecting several battery energy storage systems (BESS) to go online anytime soon, said Energy Undersecreretary Mario Marasigan.

“We are looking forward to the completion of around 250 megawatts (MW) of battery energy storage system (BESS),” Marasigan told reporters in a presser.

“So hopefully po with completion of more battery energy storage in Visayas then magkakaroon na po tayo ng konting reliability,” he added.

(With the completion of more battery energy storage in the Visayas will have a litlte more reliability.)

Once both the BESS and TVI’s two units go online, the DOE vowed that they will continue monitoring the situation in the Visayas grid.

“We will continue doing an assessment for Visayas para kung kailangan pa po natin ng second round na augmentation ng capacity, then we are looking for yun naman pong may total support ng voltage and frequency,” Marasigan said.

(We will continue assessing the Visyas situation so that if a second round of capacity augmentation is needed, then we will look for those with total support of voltage and frequency.)

Strained grid

Since July 25, the Visayas grid had not faced any fresh threats of yellow alerts, which indicate thinned reserves.

In order to operate normally, a power grid system needs sufficient supply and margins to meet demand.

Recently, the forced outages of some of the biggest coal-fired plants and a surge in demand have strained the Visayas grid for over three months.

READ MORE: Marcos pushes EPIRA overhaul to cut power costs

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