THE National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has warned of potential rotating power outages across the Visayas and Mindanao as forced plant outages and surging peak demand continue to strain the regional grids.
The system operator placed the Visayas power grid under red alert status for severe supply deficits, warning that available capacity has fallen significantly short of forecasted demand.
Available capacity in Visayas dropped to 2,168 megawatts (MW) against a predicted peak load of 2,456 MW, creating a 288 MW shortfall. Severe shortages pushed peak demand projections up to 2,575 MW against a available supply of just 2,187 MW.
As a result, scheduled rotating brownouts threaten major provinces across the region. Outages are scheduled to affect Cebu, Negros, Iloilo, Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Bohol between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m., while Leyte, Biliran, and Samar face power interruptions between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
The crisis stems from widespread equipment failures at key generation facilities. In the Visayas, 30 power plants suffered forced outages while 16 others operated at reduced capacities, taking a total of 792 MW offline.
Grid officials pointed directly to forced shutdowns at major coal facilities—specifically TVI 1 and PEDC 3—compounded by limited power imports from Mindanao.
Mindanao faces its own supply strain, with the NGCP issuing red and yellow alerts due to thin operating reserves.
In Mindanao, 27 plants are completely offline and seven are running at reduced levels, removing 841.6 MW from the grid. Major facilities affected include coal units GNPK 2, TSI 2, and GNPK 1. Peak demand in Mindanao is expected to reach 2,546 MW against an available supply of 2,480 MW.
A red alert is declared when power supply cannot meet consumer demand and necessary regulating requirements, while a yellow alert signifies that operating margins fail to meet contingency reserves.
NGCP continues to monitor grid stability as technical teams work to restore offline capacity.
