Rotating brownouts hit Visayas anew on Friday, May 29, 2026

Electricity consumers in the Visayas should expect another round of power interruptions on Friday afternoon to evening amid a supply deficiency in the islands-cluster’s grid due to forced outages and derated capacities of several power plants.

In an advisory, the NGCP said it might implement manual load dropping or rotating brownouts in the following areas between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. “to maintain the integrity of the power system”:

• VECO
• MECO
• CEBECO I
• CEBECO II
• CEBECO III
• NEPC
• NOCECO
• NORECO I
• NORECO II
• NONECO
• MORE
• AKELCO
• ANTECO
• CAPELCO
• ILECO I
• ILECO II
• ILECO III
• GUIMELCO
• BLCI
• BOHECO I
• BOHECO II

The grid operator cited the unavailability of the Visayas' large coal plants TVI 1, TVI 2, PEDC 3, and KSPC 2 and high system demand forecast for the implementation of rotating brownouts.

“Schedule may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections. NGCP encourages everyone to exercise prudence in using electricity,” it said.

The NGCP raised red alert from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and yellow alerts from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. over the Visayas grid as a total of 952.4 megawatts (MW) were unavailable to grid as it currently runs at an available capacity of 2,562 MW against a peak demand of 2,542 MW.

The grid operator said 11 plants are on forced outage since May 2026, one plant since March 2026, 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, for a total of 952.4MW unavailable to the grid.

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.

Meanwhile, 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.

The NGCP said the Luzon and Mindanao grids are expected to operate under normal conditions. — BAP, GMA News