Power woes continue as reserves fall short; brace for interruptions

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Thursday placed the Luzon and Visayas grids under red and yellow alert again, raising the risk of fresh power interruptions as electricity reserves remained insufficient to meet peak demand.

Today’s advisory is the second straight day of red alerts in Luzon and the third consecutive day in the Visayas.

NGCP said the Luzon grid will be under red alert from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., while yellow alerts will be in effect from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Available capacity in Luzon was pegged at 12,479 megawatts (MW), lower than the projected peak demand of 12,595 MW.

The grid operator said 17 power plants have been on forced outage since March 2026, while three plants have remained offline since 2025, two since 2024, and one since 2019. 

Fourteen other plants are operating on derated capacities, resulting in a total of 4,242.5 MW unavailable to the grid.

In the Visayas, NGCP declared a red alert from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., with yellow alerts from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

The Visayas grid has an available capacity of 2,413 MW against an expected peak demand of 2,541 MW.

NGCP said 11 power plants in the Visayas have been on forced outage since March 2026, four since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021. Twelve other plants are operating at derated capacity, leaving 866.7 MW unavailable to the grid.

Yesterday, the rotational brownouts triggered by the thin reserves affected more than 920,000 customers in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise area alone.

A red alert is issued when power supply becomes insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirements, while a yellow alert is declared when operating reserves fall below the required contingency margin.

The Department of Energy earlier urged consumers to conserve electricity during peak hours to help stabilize the grid and minimize the risk of further outages.