Visayas grid under red alert as plant outages persist

The Visayas power grid in the Philippines faces a red alert for two hours on Thursday, July 9, as multiple power plants remain offline. The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) announced the red alert will be in effect from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., with a yellow alert preceding and following it. This situation arises because the grid's available capacity of 2,561 megawatts is slightly below the projected peak demand of 2,568 MW. A red alert signifies that power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and reserve requirements, while a yellow alert indicates a thin operating margin. NGCP cited the unavailability of several generating units, including those from Therma Visayas Inc. and Palm Concepcion Power Corp., as the primary cause. The company reported that 10 power plants are unavailable this month alone, with others having been out of service for months or even years. Fourteen additional power plants are operating at reduced capacities, contributing to a total unavailable capacity of 959.3 MW in the Visayas grid. This recurring strain on the grid has been a concern for months, with frequent outages and reduced capacity narrowing the region's power cushion. In May, power alerts in Luzon and Visayas led energy regulators and lawmakers to demand a comprehensive accounting of the outages. A Senate resolution filed in June called for an inquiry into the persistent red and yellow alerts, citing NGCP data that showed the Visayas grid had been under red alert for approximately 22 hours and yellow alert for 93 hours. NGCP has stated its transmission capacity is dependent on the availability of supply.