Amid power breakdowns: Environmental group pushing for renewable energy

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) is calling for a transition to renewable energy after coal plant breakdowns forced the Visayas Grid into repeated Red Alerts this week, leading to rotational brownouts across Cebu and Iloilo.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has issued successive warnings since May 13, underscoring the fragility of the power supply. On the same day, NGCP declared a five-hour Red Alert from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., cutting 857 MW of capacity and triggering rotational brownouts across Cebu and Iloilo.

On May 14, NGCP lifted the Red Alert at 10:40 p.m. after available capacity rose to 2,377 MW against peak demand of 2,330 MW. The grid, however, remained under Yellow Alert until 11:00 p.m., signaling that reserves were still insufficient to cover contingencies.

Yesterday, May 15, NGCP again placed the Visayas Grid under Red Alert from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., with Yellow Alerts declared from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Available capacity stood at 2,441 MW, short of the projected 2,661 MW demand.

Major distribution utilities, including Visayan Electric, were forced to implement rotational brownouts across their franchise areas.

Coal plants were at the center of the outages. Therma Visayas, Inc. in Toledo City and Panay Energy Development Corp. in Iloilo were among those forced offline, removing nearly 500 MW from the grid.

NGCP reported that 11 plants have been on forced outage since May, one since March, four since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021, while 11 more are operating on derated capacities, leaving 841.3 MW unavailable.

PMCJ stressed that coal is not only polluting but also structurally “unreliable, undermining grid stability”.

“A Red Alert status signals that power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the grid’s regulating requirements,” the group said, warning that continued reliance on coal, including planned additions in Toledo by TVI and Meralco PowerGen, will only deepen vulnerabilities.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has echoed these concerns.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the agency is reviewing aging coal plants that “keep calling in sick” through repeated forced outages, noting that consumers ultimately pay for their inefficiency.

PMCJ stressed that these developments strengthen the case for diversifying Cebu’s energy mix and accelerating the shift to renewables with battery storage, especially as 2026 follows two of the warmest years on record.

In 2024, global temperatures breached 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, intensifying climate risks.

“With the looming threat of a “super El Niño,” the Philippines, ranked the world’s most disaster-prone country by the World Risk Index 2025, faces more extreme heat and heightened vulnerabilities,” PMCJ said.

The DOE earlier confirmed that the moratorium on new coal plants imposed in 2020 remains in force, with exemptions only for projects approved before the ban.

Garin reiterated this month that there is “no compelling need” to lift the moratorium, stressing the expansion of renewable energy instead. Momentum, she added, is shifting toward clean energy accordingly.

Meralco PowerGen was reported to have energized the Toledo Battery Energy Storage System on May 8, the first in the Visayas, while SPC Power announced P3 billion in capital expenditures for solar and battery projects.

The DOE’s Philippine Energy Plan targets a 35 percent renewable energy share by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050.

For PMCJ, the outages highlight the urgency of a rapid and just transition to renewables with storage, a shift that secures supply, shields communities from external shocks, and advances climate justice for poor and vulnerable sectors that contribute the least to climate change yet suffer the most from its impacts.