Non-governmental organization (NGO) Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities said Wednesday that more renewable energy plants were needed in the Visayas to ensure that the island group does not suffer frequent brownouts.
The group issued the statement after the Visayas grid was placed under Yellow Alert on Tuesday by National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) after unplanned outages by some power plants.
"Despite being in the cool season, when demand is typically lower, the Visayas grid continues to experience reliability problems driven largely by unplanned outages among baseload power plants, particularly coal-fired facilities," the NGO said.
"This underscores a deeper vulnerability in the system, where supply adequacy remains fragile even under relatively favorable demand conditions," it added.
"Looking ahead, the Philippines must continue moving toward a more flexible and distributed energy system by scaling up indigenous renewable energy resources such as solar and wind in order to strengthen energy security and not just depend on large baseload power plants."
The organization noted that power supply insufficiency had repeatedly emerged across the country, driven by the heavy concentration of capacity in some large power plants, particularly coal, that have become prone to outages.
To mitigate these risks, the organization said energy stakeholders must act with urgency and follow the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP).
"Strict compliance with the GOMP is essential to minimizing unplanned outages and improving plant reliability. Moreover, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) should also impose stronger penalties for violations of allowable outage limits to reinforce operational discipline among generators," the NGO noted.
"Diversifying the power mix is essential to strengthening energy security, improving system resilience, and reducing exposure to volatile fuel prices, and will also help ensure reliability even during periods of low electricity demand."