Red alert raised over Visayas grid on Aug. 15, 2026

Electricity consumers in the Visayas might expect power interruptions on Saturday afternoon to evening due to insufficient power supply amid the tripping of several power plants.

In an advisory, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said a red alert is in effect over the Visayas grid from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

This was an upgrade from the earlier yellow alert status to be raised on the same schedule.

The grid operator said the Visayas grid is currently operating at 2,350 megawatts (MW) capacity against a peak demand of 2,475 MW.

The following factors were cited as contributing to the declaration of red alert in the islands cluster:

• Unavailability of Visayas' large coal plants TVI 1 and TVI 2
• Increase in Visayas forecasted system demand by 62 MW, 138 MW, and 100 MW for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. interval hours
• Limited power import from Mindanao (due to maintenance outage of GNPK 2, unavailability of TM2 U2 and increase in Mindanao forecasted system demand by 70-80 MW)

The grid operator added that four plants are on forced outage in August 2026, one plant since July, three plants since June, seven plants since May, one plant since March, three plants since 2025, two plants since 2024, two plants since 2023, and one plant since 2021, while 15 plants are running on derated capacities.

The plant outages and derated capacities resulted in a total of 806.4 MW unavailable to the grid.

A red alert status is issued when the power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

Widespread power interruptions or rotational brownouts are expected.

In this situation, electricity might be cut temporarily in certain areas on a scheduled basis to prevent the entire grid from collapsing. —VAL, GMA News