Visayas Grid on extended red alert

CEBU, Philippines — The Visayas Grid was placed under an extended red alert on Tuesday, August 11, resulting in rotational brownouts and manual load dropping across several distribution utilities, including Cebu City.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported that the Visayas Grid had only 2,123 megawatts (MW) of available capacity against a projected peak demand of 2,418 MW, leaving a deficit of nearly 300 MW.

The red alert was declared from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., with yellow alert periods from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and again from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

For Cebu City residents, the alert meant possible power interruptions in areas served by the Visayan Electric (VECO), which supplies electricity to Cebu City and neighboring municipalities.

NGCP identified VECO and other distribution utilities for potential MLD between 1 p.m. and 10 p.m.

The impact of the tight supply had already been felt in Cebu City, where traffic signals went dark the other day due to power outages, forcing traffic personnel to manually direct vehicles at intersections along Colon Street, Osmeña Boulevard and P. Del Rosario Street.

The power shortage was attributed to the unavailability of major coal-fired plants that provide baseload power to Cebu and the wider Visayas, including Therma Visayas Inc. Units 1 and 2 and Cebu Energy Development Corp. Unit 1.

NGCP also cited limited power imports from Mindanao, where Sarangani Energy Corp. Unit 2 remained offline, GNPower Kauswagan Unit 2 was under maintenance, and GNPK Unit 1 suffered an emergency shutdown due to a boiler tube leak.

Additional outages involving smaller generating units, including CPPC Unit 5 and BDPP Unit 1, further reduced available supply. Sixteen plants were operating at derated capacities, removing nearly 1,000 MW from the grid.

Energy experts and Department of Energy (DOE) reports have long warned that Cebu and the Visayas remain vulnerable to recurring red alerts because of their dependence on aging coal-fired power plants, the limited stabilizing effect of the Mindanao-Visayas interconnection despite its full operation at 450 MW, and the slow integration of renewable energy sources.

The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities has also noted that reliance on coal exposes consumers to price volatility and reliability risks, as breakdowns in large generating plants can leave cities such as Cebu without sufficient backup supply.

NGCP continued to urge consumers in Cebu City and across the Visayas to conserve electricity, particularly during peak hours, to help ease the strain on the grid. – Caecent No-ot Magsumbol/FPL