Brace for rotational brownouts as Visayas grid under red alert again
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Rotational brownouts may hit parts of the Visayas on Friday, May 29 after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas grid under Red Alert due to insufficient power supply and rising electricity demand.
In an advisory issued Friday morning, NGCP said the Visayas grid will be under Red Alert status from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., while Yellow Alert warnings will be in effect from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
READ: Brownouts loom in Visayas amid thin power supply
A Red Alert is declared when the available power supply can no longer meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirements, raising the possibility of rotational brownouts.
A Yellow Alert, meanwhile, indicates that operating reserves have fallen below the required contingency level, although supply remains sufficient to meet demand.
Data from NGCP showed that the Visayas grid’s available capacity stood at 2,562 megawatts (MW), only slightly above the projected peak demand of 2,542MW, leaving a thin power reserve throughout the day.
READ: Visayas grid stays on yellow alert on Thursday
The power situation was worsened by multiple plant outages across the region.
A total of 11 power plants have been on forced outage since May 2026 alone, while one plant has been unavailable since March this year, said NGCP.
Additional outages from previous years continue to affect the grid, including three plants that have remained offline since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021.
READ: Why are ‘rotational brownouts’ necessary to prevent a Visayas blackout?
At the same time, 15 other power plants are operating on derated or reduced capacities.
In total, about 952.4MW of power capacity is currently unavailable to the Visayas grid.
NGCP identified the unavailability of several major coal-fired power plants as among the main causes behind the Red Alert declaration. These include TVI Units 1 and 2, PEDC Unit 3, and KSPC Unit 2.
The agency also cited a high system demand forecast as electricity consumption continues to increase amid warmer weather conditions and heightened commercial activity.
To prevent wider grid collapse, distribution utilities may implement rotational brownouts.
Likewise, consumers have been urged to conserve electricity during peak hours by limiting the use of high-energy appliances, turning off unnecessary lights and equipment, and adjusting air-conditioning usage where possible.
Despite the situation in the Visayas, NGCP said the Luzon and Mindanao grids were expected to operate under normal conditions.
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