The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) raised a yellow alert for the Visayas grid for five hours Wednesday afternoon, citing insufficient operating margin due to the forced shutdown of several power plants, including major coal and geothermal facilities.
The yellow alert status, which indicates the operating margin is inadequate to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement, was in effect from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time. The alert was triggered by 14 plants on forced outage and several others operating at derated capacity, rendering a total of 898.6 megawatts (MW) unavailable to the grid.
The Visayas grid’s available capacity stood at 2,694 MW against a peak demand of 2,351 MW.
Major contributors to the shortage include the unavailability of both Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the Therma Visayas Inc. coal plant in Cebu, owned by Aboitiz Power Corp., each with a capacity of 169 MW. Energy Development Corp.’s Leyte Geothermal Power Plant 3 also underwent an emergency shutdown, with its capacity derated from 79.5 MW to 39.3 MW.
Some of the plants have been out for an extended period, with 14 plants on forced outage between April and November, four since 2024, and two since 2023.
Meanwhile, the Luzon and Mindanao grids were reported to be operating under normal conditions.
