Brownouts expected again as Visayas grid hits 5th red alert

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Consumers in Metro Cebu and other parts of the Visayas should brace for possible rotational brownouts on Wednesday, August 12, as the regional power grid faces its fifth red alert amid a widening supply shortage.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas grid under red alert from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, when electricity demand is expected to peak.

Yellow alerts will precede and follow the red alert, covering 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

READ MORE: Brownout warning up in Metro Cebu for Aug. 10

As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, the grid had an available capacity of only 2,153 megawatts (MW) against a projected peak demand of 2,394 MW, leaving a deficit of 241 MW.

NGCP said the alert declarations were mainly due to the continued unavailability of some of the Visayas’ large coal-fired power plants and limited electricity imports from Mindanao.

Coal plants offline

NGCP’s advisory showed that six power plants were on forced outage as of August, while other generating units had been offline for months or years.

Two plants had been on outage since July, three since June and seven since May, it added. Other plants had been unavailable since March, 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2021.

Aside from the plants on forced outage, 14 generating plants were operating at derated capacities, meaning they were producing less electricity than their full capacity.

Combined, the unavailable and derated generating capacity amounted to 931.5 MW, further squeezing the Visayas grid’s already thin supply margin.

Less power from Mindanao

The Visayas was also receiving limited power imports from Mindanao, which was another factor behind the red alert status, NGCP said.

The reduced imports were attributed to the maintenance outage of GNPower Kauswagan (GNPK) 2, the emergency shutdown of GNPK 1 due to a boiler tube leak, and high forecasted electricity demand in Mindanao.

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NGCP defines a red alert as a condition in which available power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

A yellow alert, meanwhile, means the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

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