Rotating brownouts may hit Visayas consumers on Aug. 26, 2026

Rotational power interruptions are expected across several electric cooperatives in the Visayas on Wednesday afternoon to evening as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) implements manual load dropping (MLD) to maintain the grid's stability amid insufficient power supply.

In an advisory, the NGCP said it might implement MLD or rotating brownouts from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the following franchise areas:

• 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

Other rotating brownouts would be implemented from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the following areas:

• LEYECO II
• SOLECO
• DORELCO
• LEYECO III
• LEYECO IV
• LEYECO V
• ESAMELCO
• BILECO
• NORSAMELCO
• SAMELCO I
• SAMELCO II

The grid operator said the implementation of MLD "due to limited generation and limited import power from Mindanao grid."

"Schedule may be cancelled if system condition improves, such as if actual demand falls below projections," the NGCP said.

The NGCP placed the Visayas grid under red alert from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and yellow alerts from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. as the islands cluster operate at a short fall with 2,237 megawatts (MW) capacity against a peak demand of 2,530 MW.

The factors that contributed to the red and yellow alert declarations are:

• Unavailability of Visayas' large coal plants TVI 1, TVI 2, KSPC 1
• Limited power import from Mindanao (due to planned outage of TSI 1, emergency shutdown of Pulangi U1, 26-Aug at 8:33 a.m., tripping of STEAG 1, 26-Aug at 8:37 a.m.)

Moreover, it said 12 plants are on forced outage since August 2026, one plant 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. Meanwhile, 15 plants are running on derated capacities, "for a total of 938.9 MW 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.

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid's contingency requirement. — VDV, GMA News