Manila: The unavailability of major coal-fired power plants, along with limited electricity import from Mindanao, resulted in another yellow alert for the Visayas grid on Monday, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

According to Philippines News Agency, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported that the available capacity in the Visayas grid is around 2,350 megawatts (MW), while the peak demand is projected to reach 2,276 MW. This situation indicates an inadequate operating margin against the contingency requirement, as stated by the NGCP.

The alert is a result of ongoing unavailability of Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. and Unit 1 of the Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC). Additionally, imports from Mindanao have decreased due to the extended outage of Unit 2 of the 118.5-MW coal-fired Sarangani Energy Corporation and Unit 1 of the coal-fired GNPower Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte.

A total of five power plants in the Visayas are currently unavailable, adding to the more than 20 that have been on forced outage since 2021. The NGCP also noted that 13 other power plants are operating on derated capacities, resulting in a total loss to the grid of approximately 909.8MW.