Visayas Power Grid Under Red and Yellow Alerts as Coal Plants Fail

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas power grid under a red alert from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. after thin supply caused by outages at major coal‑fired plants and the tripping of two 138‑kV transmission lines. The red alert signaled insufficient power to meet demand, raising the risk of rotational brownouts. The tripped lines were restored at 4:17 p.m., after which the grid moved to a yellow alert until 11 p.m., indicating that reserves were still thin.

A subsequent advisory extended a yellow alert for Thursday, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., because four coal‑fired units – two at Therma Visayas Inc., one at Kepco SPC Power Corp., one at Cebu Energy Development Corp., and the 82‑MW Toledo Power Co. plant – remained on forced outage. NGCP reported a total capacity of about 2,478 MW, short of the 2,291 MW peak demand, with additional losses from derated plants and a transmission line affected by Tropical Storm Maymay (Kujira). Restoration crews were mobilised to address the outages.