The Visayas Grid had been placed under yellow alert from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) flagged low power reserves amid rising electricity demand and continued outages across multiple power plants.
The alert, which signals thinning reserves without imminent outages, underscores growing grid vulnerability. As of 1:30 p.m., NGCP reported an available capacity of 2,528 MW against a peak demand of 2,475 MW. At least 23 power plants are either offline or operating at reduced capacity, collectively removing 733.5 MW from the system.
NGCP clarified that the alert is limited to the Visayas, with Luzon and Mindanao still operating under normal conditions. Similar yellow alerts were also raised on August 1 and 4, though these were quickly lifted.
Energy advocacy group Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) criticized the recurring outages, particularly from coal-fired baseload plants, which they say are increasingly unreliable under current grid demands. “Coal plants are being cycled more frequently than designed, accelerating wear and tear,” the ICSC warned, stressing that even a single unplanned outage can significantly disrupt grid stability.
ICSC urged stricter compliance with the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program and called for a strategic shift toward indigenous renewables such as solar and wind to bolster grid resilience and energy security.
The Department of Energy has yet to issue a statement on the situation.
