Manila: The unavailability of several power plants in the Visayas and Mindanao continues to trigger red and yellow alerts Thursday as electricity demand remains high. In an advisory, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Visayas grid will be under red alert for nine hours, from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., while yellow alerts will be in effect from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

According to Philippines News Agency, available capacity in the Visayas stands at about 2,187 megawatts (MW), while peak demand is expected to reach 2,575 MW. Unit 1 of Therma Visayas Inc. and Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp. remain on forced outage, along with four other units that have been unavailable this month. The NGCP highlighted that more than 20 other units have been unavailable since 2021, while 16 power plants are operating at derated capacities, resulting in a total capacity loss of about 792 MW. Electricity imports from the Mindanao grid are also low, further limiting available capacity in the Visayas.

In Mindanao, the available capacity is about 2,480 MW, which is below the combined requirements for peak demand, contingency, and regulating reserves. Peak demand is expected to reach 2,546 MW. The Mindanao grid will be under red alert for nine hours, from noon to 9 p.m., and yellow alert from 10 a.m. to noon and 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. NGCP reported that six power plants are on forced outage this month, primarily Units 1 and 2 of GNPower Kauswagan and Unit 2 of Therma South Inc. Four other power plants have been unavailable this month, while 21 others have been on forced outage since early 2024. Seven additional plants are operating at derated capacities, bringing the total capacity loss to about 841.6 MW.

NGCP issues a yellow alert when available capacity falls below a grid's contingency requirement. A red alert is issued when available capacity is insufficient to meet both demand and the grid's contingency requirement.