High temperature might have affected the thermal coal plants that shut down this week, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) spokesperson said.

This was mentioned by Cynthia Perez-Alabanza, NGCP spokesperson in a radio interview on Thursday.

"The big thermal coal plant (in Pagbilao, Quezon) really had a big impact. Thermal means it burned firewood to make the turbine work. So again it means it is affected by the weather temperature, the hot weather, but again, I defer to the (Department of Energy) DOE and the power plant to explain," she said.

The DOE, facing its third straight day of yellow and red alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grid, called on everyone's cooperation in minimizing power consumption at peak hours.

''Power conditions have remained tight since Tuesday, April 16, 2024, resulting in the issuance of red and yellow alerts in the Luzon grid and yellow alerts in the Visayas grid,'' the DOE said in a statement.

Alabanza also stressed the importance of maintaining an energy mix especially to the new energy suppliers.

"We have to carefully look into the entry of the new energy suppliers because we should maintain the energy mix, meaning the energy should come from different kinds of technology, so that not all of them will be affected, like the hydro that are affected during El Nino," she explained.

As 19 power plants remain out of the Luzon grid, the red alert status was raised from 3 to 4 pm on Thursday and 8 to 10 pm of the same day while yellow alert status was raised from 1 to 3 pm; 4 to 8pm and 10 to 11 pm.

The NGCP noted that only one power plant is running on derated capacity, for a total of 1,891.3MW unavailable to the grid.

Yellow alert was also raised in Visayas grid from 1 to 9pm with available capacity of 2,662MW and peak demand of 2,465MW.

"Thirteen power plants are on forced outage, while nine others are running on derated capacities, for a total of 696.7MW unavailable to the grid," it noted. Robina Asido/DMS