Philippines electricity supply and grid instability

The Philippines is experiencing significant electricity supply instability, characterized by localized cooperative failures and broader national grid alerts.

Initially, specific electric cooperatives reported severe reliability issues. In Catanduanes, generator failures and unsettled subsidies led to daily brownouts lasting up to eight hours. In Albay, the struggles of the Albay Electric Cooperative sparked national debates regarding privatization versus rehabilitation. Meanwhile, in Palawan, residents protested for reliable power despite official performance ratings. These issues are compounded by systemic challenges, including high system-loss allowances for cooperatives and aging infrastructure.

This instability escalated to the national level as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) issued red and yellow alerts for the Visayas and Mindanao grids. The shortages were driven by the unavailability of major coal-fired units and forced outages at several power plants, some of which have been out of service since 2021. At the height of the shortage, outages and derated capacities removed approximately 909.8 MW from the grid, representing nearly 40 percent of available capacity.