NGCP issues red, yellow alerts for Luzon, Visayas grids for Friday, May 15, 2026

The Luzon and Visayas grids will be placed under yellow and red alert anew from Friday afternoon to evening due to forced outage of several power plants, coupled with increased demand amid the hot dry season weather.

In an advisory, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said a yellow alert is hoisted from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., followed by a red alert from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., which will be immediately succeeded by another yellow alert from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

A yellow alert is declared when the reserve power in the grid becomes low. While supply is still enough to meet current demand, it no longer reaches the required safety margin.

At this level, the possibility of rotational power interruptions increases.

READ: What does each power alert level mean?

Meanwhile, a red alert is the highest alert level and is declared when the electricity supply is insufficient to meet demand since the reserves are depleted.

During this status, widespread power interruptions or rotational brownouts are expected as electricity is temporarily cut in certain areas on a scheduled basis to prevent the entire grid from collapsing.

The Luzon grid is currently running at an available capacity of 13,508 megawatts (MW) against a peak demand of 13,881 MW, resulting in a deficiency of 373 MW.

The NGCP said a total of 4,106 MW capacity were unavailable to the grid as 16 plants are on forced outage since May, one plant since April, three plants since March, one plant since February, three since January, three plants since 2025, two plants since 2024, and one plant out since 2019. Meanwhile, 14 plants are running on derated capacities.

The grid operator, meanwhile, said the Tayabas-Ilijan 500-kilovolt (kV) Line and the Dasmarinas-Ilijan 500-kV Line were restored on May 13, 2026 at 2:44 p.m. and 4:52 p.m., respectively.

"We are waiting for the affected plants to resynchronize back to the grid," the NGCP said.

The Visayas grid, on the other hand, is placed under yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., followed by a red alert from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and another yellow alert from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

The grid is running at 2,441 MW available capacity against a peak demand of 2,661 MW, resulting in a supply gap of 220 MW.

The NGCP said a total of 841.3 MW were unavailable to the Visayas grid as 11 plants are on forced outage since May 2026, one plant since March 2026, four plants since 2025, two plants since 2024, two plants since 2023, one plant since 2021. Eleven plants are running on derated capacities.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) have ordered the NGCP to submit a comprehensive incident report on the power supply disruptions in Luzon and the Visayas.

The two agencies tasked the NGCP to make a full accounting of the temporary power supply cut after its yellow and red alert declarations that affected the Luzon and the Visayas grids from May 12 to 14.

The NGCP vowed to comply with the order and submit pertinent reports.

"NGCP's current efforts are focused on maintaining the stability of the Luzon and Visayas grids while awaiting the normalization of supply," it said.

"Currently, an investigation into the events that affected both grids over the past few days is already underway," it added. — VDV, GMA News