The Visayas power grid was placed under a yellow alert again on Monday afternoon as continued forced outages in several coal-fired power plants reduced available capacity, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.
In an advisory, NGCP said the yellow alert was in effect from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. as system conditions tightened amid limited reserve supply.
The grid operator reported that available capacity in the Visayas stood at 2,579 megawatts (MW), while peak demand was projected at 2,488 MW, leaving a narrow operating margin that failed to meet contingency reserve requirements.
A yellow alert is raised when reserves are insufficient to cover unexpected power plant outages or sudden spikes in demand.
NGCP said the situation was largely driven by the continued shutdown of multiple generating facilities, with 11 power plants still on forced outage since May.
Among the affected units are Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc., a generating unit of Panay Energy Development Corp., and Unit 2 of Kepco SPC Power Corp.
The grid operator also noted that one plant has been on forced outage since March, while others have been offline since 2025, 2024, 2023, and as far back as 2021, reflecting prolonged maintenance and operational challenges across the fleet.
In addition, 11 other power plants are operating on derated capacities, further limiting supply. NGCP estimated that total unavailable capacity in the Visayas grid has reached about 958.25 megawatts.
Power authorities continue to monitor the situation as energy demand remains steady, with grid operators warning that sustained outages could tighten supply conditions further if additional capacity is not restored.
Photo courtesy of NGCP
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