NGCP: Red alert hoisted over Visayas grid on July 8, 2026

Electricity consumers in the Visayas might expect a series of rotating brownouts on Wednesday afternoon to evening as a red alert status is raised over the islands-cluster due to tripping of several power plants.

In an advisory, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the red alert is effective from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., following a yellow alert raised from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The Visayas grid will be placed again under yellow alert from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

The grid operator said the island group is currently operating at 2,397 megawatts (MW) capacity against a peak demand of 2,492 MW.

The NGCP cited the tripping of Iloilo-PEDC 138 kilovolt Line 3 at 1:32 p.m., resulting in isolation of PEDC Unit 3 and the emergency shutdown of PCPC at 2:06 p.m. due to a possible boiler tube leak as factors that contributed to the declaration of red alert.

Moreover, it said 10 plants are on forced outage in July 2026, four plants since June, seven plants since May, one plant since March, three plants since 2025, three plants since 2024, two plants since 2023, and one plant since 2021, while 14 plants are running on derated capacities, for a total of 1,092.8MW unavailable to the grid.

A red alert status is issued when 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.

A yellow alert, meanwhile, is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

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.—AOL, GMA News