MANILA, Philippines — The Visayas grid was placed under red alert yesterday afternoon due to the unavailability of two major coal-fired plants, limited power imports and high consumer demand.
The alert status was raised from 5 to 8 p.m. as the peak demand of 2,475 megawatts exceeded the available capacity of 2,350 MW, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.
The NGCP said the red alert status was due to the unavailability of Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. as well as limited power imports from Mindanao.
Four plants are on a forced outage this month, while 15 others are running on derated capacities.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy is eyeing short- and long-term solutions to address the persistent power woes in the Visayas.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said on Thursday that both the Visayas and Mindanao grids are at risk of being placed under yellow and red alerts in the coming months.
“If we don’t do any intervention, it will continue and get worse every year because there are basic problems in the energy system,” Garin said on One News’ “The Big Story.”
“We’re working with the NGCP, trying to bring in more batteries as a temporary recourse to reduce the red and yellow alerts. We’ve been waiting for the NGCP to act on it for two months because our simulations show that the red and yellow alerts can be reduced,” she said.
Garin said that immediate solutions are being delayed because the NGCP is “not (providing) the same response or speed” as with the DOE.
Aside from providing more batteries, the DOE is bringing in more power barges, but Garin said this may shoot up electricity costs.
The power problem in the Visayas started as the region’s economy was growing.
In 2025, Western Visayas posted the fastest growth rate among all regional economies, expanding by 6.4 percent.
Garin said that if the power demand is not addressed and managed properly, the region’s economy will suffer.
“We can’t just have a band-aid solution. That’s why we decided to make a master plan for the Visayas to have more baseloads and better connections,” she said.
Earlier, Garin said that teams have been asked to develop master plans for the Visayas, Mindoro and Palawan.
The DOE is focusing on establishing more renewable plants in the Visayas, which is home to 45 percent of all renewables in the country.
The region represents only a quarter of the country’s power mix, but it suffered yellow and red alerts in recent months due to lack of stable power sources.