THE Cebu Electricity Rights Advocates (Cera) is pressing the government to fast-track new power projects in the Visayas after the grid was placed under “Yellow Alert” last week due to thin reserves.
On Aug. 6, 2025, the Visayas grid recorded peak demand of 2,369 megawatts (MW) against an available capacity of 2,538 MW. Reserves dropped to 169 MW, below the 200 MW safety margin required to withstand the loss of the largest power unit online. By Aug. 7, reserves slid further to just 98 MW, increasing the risk of wide spread outages.
The alert comes amid 11 power plants suffering forced outages between April and August, six others offline since 2023, and four operating below capacity. This translates to 725.2 MW of unavailable supply.
“The thin power reserves of the Visayas grid threaten the economic stability of the region. The tight margin highlights the lack of a sufficient safety buffer,” Cera convenor Nathaniel Chua said.
Chua stressed that Cebu, as the economic hub of the Visayas, is especially vulnerable. Metro Cebu is a major center for tourism, information technology-business process management and manufacturing, sectors that depend heavily on reliable electricity.
“Given our current power setup, Cebu remains vulnerable to disruptions beyond its control, such as forced outages at power plants in other regions, technical issues or natural disasters affecting inter-island transmission lines, and supply constraints driven by growing energy demand in neighboring economies,” he said.
With peak demand in Cebu already outpacing local generating capacity, distributors have increasingly tapped supply from Luzon and Mindanao via the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, where prices are volatile.
To secure the region’s energy future, Chua is urging the acceleration of both baseload and renewable energy projects.
“If the power supply is unstable, it can force businesses to downsize or even shut down, leading to job losses. Projects like the expansion of existing baseload power plants and the development of new renewable energy sources are crucial to ensuring continued economic growth in Cebu,” he added. / KOC