UMVA has learned that the Visayas power grid has been placed under a yellow alert for the fourth straight day, sparking fears of rolling blackouts across the region.
The National Grid Corp. announced the alert on Thursday, tightening the grid’s safety net from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. as the reserve margin slipped to a precarious level.
During the alert window, available capacity lingered at 2,532 MW while peak demand surged to 2,388 MW, leaving barely a 144‑MW cushion.
Behind the numbers, 22 power plants are offline due to forced outages, and another 14 are operating below full strength, shaving off a staggering 1,006.2 MW of generation.
Key contributors to the crisis include the sudden trip of Unit 2 at the 103‑MW KEPCO SPC coal plant, the forced shutdown of Units 1 and 2 at Therma Visayas, and the loss of Unit 3 at Panay Energy Development.
Faced with mounting strain, the grid operator warned that manual load shedding or rotational power interruptions could be deployed between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. to stave off a transmission line overload.
Residents of Cebu, Negros Island, Panay Island, Bohol, and Iloilo City stand on the front lines of possible brownouts as the system teeters on the edge.
This marks the 17th yellow alert recorded in the Visayas this year, underscoring a pattern of tightening supply that could reshape the region’s energy landscape.
