Visayas: The forced outage of 10 additional generating units across several power plants in the Visayas on Monday prompted the extension of the yellow alert status by an hour, or until 10 p.m., and the implementation of manual load dropping (MLD) in parts of the region. In an updated advisory, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said available capacity in the Visayas grid had fallen to 2,514 megawatts (MW), while peak demand was projected to reach 2,437 MW. Earlier in the day, available capacity was estimated at 2,579 MW against a projected peak demand of 2,488 MW.
According to Philippines News Agency, NGCP identified the additional generating units that went on forced outage as Units 6 to 10 of Cebu Private Power Corp., Unit 2 of Central Negros Power Reliability Inc., Unit 4 of the Bohol Diesel Power Plant, Unit 5 of Panay Diesel Power Plant 1, and Unit 3 of Power Barge 101 in Barrio Obrero, Iloilo City.
The worsening supply situation prompted the extension of the yellow alert, which is issued when available operating reserves fall below the required contingency level, as well as the implementation of manual load dropping to prevent a wider system disturbance. Areas covered by the MLD include the service areas of the following distribution utilities and electric cooperatives: 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, and BOHECO II.
Since May 12, the Visayas grid has been repeatedly placed under yellow alert due to a series of forced outages involving nearly 20 generating units from various power plants. Among the major facilities currently affected are Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI), a generating unit of Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC), and Unit 2 of Kepco SPC Power Corp. (KSPC). These are on top of six other generating units that were already on forced outage as of early Monday, as well as nine units that have been offline since May, one since March, three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021.
NGCP said 17 other power plants are operating at derated capacities, bringing the total unavailable capacity in the Visayas grid to about 1,023.7 MW. In an online briefing on Monday, Department of Energy Undersecretary Mario Marasigan said the affected generating unit of KSPC is expected to return to service by June 2, while the PEDC unit is scheduled to resume operations by July 3. Meanwhile, the two affected generating units of TVI are expected to return to operation on Aug. 22 and Aug. 30, respectively.
