The government’s planned deployment of 253 megawatts (MW) of battery storage could eliminate more than half of the Visayas grid’s power alerts, providing a critical buffer as prolonged plant outages continue to strain electricity supply.

Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin said on Monday that the Department of Energy (DOE) has been working with power companies to deploy battery energy storage systems across Cebu, Panay, Leyte and Negros, with some facilities already prepared to support the grid.

“So, that's 253 MW that the DOE is working to bring into the system. Based on our simulation presented this morning, with the 253 MW, more than half of the alerts will be gone,” Garin said.

“There will be far fewer red and yellow alerts. In fact, red alerts might be avoided as long as our batteries consistently come online,” she added.

The Visayas grid has already logged 96 yellow alerts and 33 red alerts from January to 7 September, according to data from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

On Monday alone, the NGCP placed the Visayas under red alert from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., with available capacity at 2,284 MW against peak demand of 2,470 MW. Yellow alerts were also raised from noon to 1 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

NGCP said 919 MW of capacity was unavailable, with dozens of plants either on forced outage or operating at derated capacity. Some generating units have been out since as far back as 2021.

The grid operator attributed the latest alerts partly to the unavailability of major coal plants TVI Unit 1 and PEDC Unit 3, the derated 70-MW capacity of THVI Unit 2 due to a main steam problem, and limited imports from Mindanao amid higher demand there.

The DOE is also rushing offline plants back into service. The 82-MW CEDC Unit 1 returned on 5 September, while the 169-MW Therma Visayas Unit 1 is scheduled to return by 15 September and the 150-MW PEDC Unit 3 by 3 October.

Three Mindanao units totaling 403 MW are likewise targeted to return between 8 and 20 September, which could restore the region’s ability to send more electricity to the Visayas through the interconnected grid.

“The Visayas Power situation is unacceptable, and we are treating it with utmost urgency,” Garin said.