Visayas grid on yellow alert anew

The Visayas grid will be on yellow alert anew for nine hours starting Tuesday afternoon, due to the continued unavailability of major plants, and lower imports from Mindanao, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

The yellow alert status — indicating that the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement — will be in place from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23.

This comes as the grid’s available capacity was recorded at 2,461 megawattts (MW), against a peak demand of 2,300 MW, as 1,073 MW remain unavailable to the grid.

The NGCP attributed the declaration to the increase of forced outages, citing units of the Panay Diesel Power Plant (PDPP), the Bohol Diesel Power Plant (BDPP), the Bohol Island Diesel Power Plant (BIDPP), Carmen Diesel, and Leyte-A.

It also noted the decrease in power imports from Mindanao due to additional outage of plants, along with the decline of solar forecast in the region.

A total of 16 power plants have been on forced outage this month — eight since May, one since March, three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021; while 14 plants are running on derated capacities.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin last month already ordered the immediate the restoration of the three power plants, and instructed the Visayas Field Office to inspect and coordinate with the concerned generation companies to ensure that they are back online “safely and promptly.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) said that while there is no direct correlation between the declaration of yellow and red alerts on electricity rates, the thin power supply forced the use of more expensive diesel power plants, which could slightly raise power costs. — RSJ, GMA News