Yellow alert raised in Visayas grid anew
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Visayas power grid has been placed under Yellow Alert anew on Friday, June 5, as electricity demand is expected to surge close to available supply, with several major power plants remaining offline, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
In an advisory issued Friday morning, NGCP said the Yellow Alert will be in effect from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., when peak demand is projected to reach 2,379 megawatts (MW) against an available capacity of 2,608 MW.
READ: EXPLAINER: Color-coded grid alert statuses and what they mean
The alert status was declared due to a combination of high electricity demand and the continued unavailability of several generating units in the region, including some of the Visayas grid’s largest coal-fired power plants.
NGCP cited the outage of Therma Visayas Inc. Units 1 and 2 (TVI 1 and TVI 2) and Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3 (PEDC 3) as among the key factors behind the thinning power reserves.
“A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement,” the grid operator said.
READ: Visayas continues to face thin power supply
Data from NGCP showed that eight power plants are currently on forced outage this month.
Another eight generating units have remained offline since May, while one plant has been out of service since March.
The grid operator also reported prolonged outages involving three plants that had been unavailable since 2025, two plants since 2024, two plants since 2023, and one plant that had remained offline since 2021.
READ: Why are ‘rotational brownouts’ necessary to prevent a Visayas blackout?
In addition to the forced outages, 11 generating units are operating at reduced capacity, further limiting available supply.
Overall, the outages and derated operations have rendered a total of 929.8 MW unavailable to the Visayas grid, significantly reducing reserve margins during periods of elevated demand.
The latest Yellow Alert underscores the continuing challenges facing the Visayas power system as demand rises amid constrained generation availability.
While a Yellow Alert does not automatically result in rotational power interruptions, it signals that the grid has limited reserves and is more vulnerable to unexpected outages of additional generating units.
Power consumers are often encouraged to practice energy conservation during alert periods to help ease pressure on the grid.
The Visayas grid has experienced several instances of tight power supply in recent years, particularly during periods of high demand and when multiple generating units are simultaneously unavailable due to maintenance, forced outages, or reduced operating capacity.
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