THE National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) extended the yellow alert over the Visayas grid on Monday, prolonging the warning window from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM following fresh drops in generating capacity.
The Department of Energy (DOE) warned that the region’s power network remains precarious due to long-term forced outages at several major facilities.
According to NGCP’s 1:15 PM advisory, available capacity stood at 2,462 megawatts (MW) against an anticipated peak demand of 2,262 MW.
The decision to extend the alert followed the sudden unavailability of CPPC Unit 10, removing 6.3 MW, along with output drops at Leyte-A, which saw its capacity decline from 328 MW to 312 MW.
NGCP reported that a total of 1,071.9 MW remains unavailable to the Visayas grid.
Beyond the 16 generating units operating on derated capacities, numerous facilities suffer from prolonged forced shutdowns—some offline since May, with others dating as far back as 2021.
A yellow alert signals that operating reserves have fallen below the required threshold to cushion the sudden loss of the grid’s largest generating unit.
Energy Undersecretary Mario Marasigan identified a recent weekend tripping at Toledo Power Corp. (TPC) as the primary catalyst for the immediate grid strain.
“In Toledo Power, apparently, they had a tripping just the other day… expected to return by August 6,” Marasigan stated, adding that technical assessments are ongoing.
This sudden outage compounding existing challenges, including ongoing forced shutdowns at Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) Units 1 and 2, which have been offline since May due to turbine thermal issues.
To avert severe shortfalls, Visayas relies heavily on subsea power links, drawing up to 450 MW from Mindanao and 250 MW from Luzon.
“Without the transfer from Mindanao, as well as from Luzon… Visayas will always be on red alert,” Marasigan noted, warning that rising demand in Mindanao could constrain these imports.
In response, the DOE has instructed NGCP to negotiate emergency auxiliary service contracts, while fast-tracking battery storage deployment and relocating a 50-MW power barge to Cebu before year-end.
