Manila: Red alert is raised anew over the Visayas grid on Thursday, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., as supply remains low given the unavailability of several major coal-fired power plants. Yellow alert is also in effect from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said in an advisory. Available capacity in the grid is around 2,344 megawatts (MW) while peak demand is expected to reach 2,452MW.

According to Philippines News Agency, NGCP issues yellow alert whenever a grid's operating margin is not enough against the contingency requirement while a red alert is up when supply is insufficient to meet both the demand and the grid's regulating requirement. Supply has been low in the Visayas due to the forced outage of some power plants particularly the Units 1 and 2 of the Therma Visayas Inc., as well as the Unit 1 of the Kepco SPC Power Corp.

NGCP said nine power plants are unavailable for this month alone, while 20 others are not working as far back as 2021. It said 16 other power plants are working on derated capacities, resulting in a loss of around 916.2MW for the Visayas grid.

Energy officials said measures are now being undertaken to address the situation, with NGCP tasked to put up battery-power facilities to boost supply.