MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas grid under yellow alert from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday as thinning power reserves and supply constraints threatened to tighten electricity availability during peak hours.
In an advisory, NGCP said the Visayas grid's available capacity stood at 2,675 megawatts (MW) against an expected peak demand of 2,564 MW, leaving a narrow operating margin.
A yellow alert is declared when the reserve capacity falls below the level required to meet the grid's contingency requirements.
The grid operator attributed the alert to the unavailability of several major generating units, including the large coal-fired power plants TVI 1, TVI 2 and PEDC 3.
The situation was further aggravated by reduced power imports from Mindanao following plant trippings linked to the recent earthquake, as well as an expected surge in electricity demand during the afternoon and evening peak period.
NGCP said a total of 26 power plants were on forced outage as of June 11, including nine plants that went offline this month, eight since May, one since March, three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021.
Meanwhile, 10 other generating facilities were operating at reduced capacities.
The outages and derated operations resulted in 863.1 MW of unavailable capacity in the Visayas grid, tightening power reserves despite supply remaining sufficient to cover projected demand.
A yellow alert does not automatically result in power interruptions but signals a higher risk of supply shortages should additional generating units unexpectedly trip or demand exceed forecasts.
