Cebu: A yellow alert status has been issued for the Visayas grid from 1 p.m. until midnight on Wednesday after 27 power plants were rendered unavailable due to a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Cebu on Tuesday night. This alert indicates a limited margin between available power supply and demand.

According to Philippines News Agency, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported that approximately 1,444.1 megawatts (MW) were lost following the tripping of power plants caused by the tremor. The available capacity in the Visayas region is around 1,888 MW, while the peak demand is approximately 1,839 MW.

The NGCP further explained that prior to the earthquake, 16 power plants were already unavailable, and one was operating at a derated capacity, resulting in about 1,654.7 MW available to the grid. While the Luzon and Mindanao grids remain in normal condition, the Visayas grid faces challenges due to the recent seismic activity.

In a separate advisory, the NGCP stated that three transmission lines-Ubay-Maasin 138KV Line, Ormoc-Maasin 138KV Line 1, and Ormoc-Isabel 138KV Line-have been restored. However, 11 transmission lines continue to experience outages, including the Daanbantayan-Tabango 230KV Line 1 and 2, Daanbantayan-Compostela 230KV Line 1 and 2, and several others.

The NGCP assured that "restoration of the remaining parts of the Leyte-Samar sub-grid is ongoing. Power transmission services in the rest of the Visayas grid (Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol) are all under normal operations." The efforts to restore full power are underway as the region continues to recover from the earthquake's impact.