REDUCED electricity imports from Mindanao, coupled with the outage of major coal-fired power plants in the Visayas, have prompted the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to place the Visayas grid under a yellow alert from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 11.
NGCP said the limited power supply from Mindanao stemmed from previous plant trippings caused by the recent earthquake, resulting in thinner operating reserves in the Visayas.
The situation was aggravated by the continued unavailability of major generating units, including TVI 1, TVI 2 and PEDC 3, as well as high demand forecasts.
In an advisory issued Thursday morning, NGCP said the Visayas grid is expected to have an available capacity of 2,675 megawatts (MW) against a projected peak demand of 2,564 MW during the alert period.
NGCP said a total of 863.1 MW is currently unavailable to the grid as several power plants remain offline or are operating at reduced capacity.
The grid operator reported that nine power plants have been on forced outage since June 2026, while eight have been unavailable since May. One plant has remained on forced outage since March, three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021. In addition, 10 power plants are operating on derated capacities.
Among the factors that led to the yellow alert declaration were the unavailability of the Visayas’ major coal-fired power plants, including Therma Visayas Inc. Unit 1, Therma Visayas Inc. Unit 2 and Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3.
NGCP also cited reduced power imports from Mindanao following previous plant trippings linked to the recent earthquake, as well as a forecast of high electricity demand across the Visayas.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement, indicating that power reserves are thin but that no widespread outages are expected unless additional generating units become unavailable.
The grid operator continues to monitor the situation and urged stakeholders to manage electricity consumption during peak hours. (SunStar)