Visayas grid under red, yellow alerts; Mindanao on yellow alert on Aug. 12, 2026

Electricity consumers in the Visayas and Mindanao might experience power interruptions on Wednesday afternoon to evening due to insufficient power supply coupled with thinning reserves due to tripping of several power plants.

In an advisory, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Visayas grid will be under red alert from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., following a yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The island clusters will be placed again under yellow alert from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The grid operator said the Visayas grid is currently operating at 2,153 megawatts (MW) capacity against a peak demand of 2,394 MW.

The NGCP cited the following factors that contributed to the red and yellow alert declarations in the Visayas grid:

• Unavailability of Visayas' large coal plants TVI 1, TVI 2, CEDC 1
• Limited power import from Mindanao (due to maintenance outage of GNPK 2, emergency shutdown of GNPK 1 due to boiler tube leak, and high forecasted system demand)

The grid operator added that six plants are on forced outage in August 2026, two plants 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 14 plants are running on derated capacities, “for a total of 931.5MW unavailable to the grid.”

In an updated advisory, the NGCP said the red alert for the islands group is extended from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., while the yellow alerts were adjusted at 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The extended red alert on the Visayas grid was due to an “increase in demand forecast” and “unavailability of PDPP3-C and PDPP3-G.”

Meanwhile, the Mindanao grid is placed under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Mindanao grid has an available capacity of 2,779 MW against a peak demand of 2,689MW.

The NGCP said the factors that contributed to the yellow alert declaration in the Mindanao grid are as follows:

• GNPK 2 (Maintenance Outage, July 28, 2026)
• Emergency shutdown of GNPK 1 due to boiler tube leak (August 09, 2026)
• High forecasted system demand

Moreover, nine plants are on forced outage in August 2026, seven plants since July, one plant since June, one plant since January, one plant since 2025, and one plant since 2024, while nine plants are running on derated capacities, for a total of 621.6MW 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/RSJ, GMA News