VISAYAS consumers may see some relief from recurring power supply tightness beginning this week as several major generating units are scheduled to return to service over the next three months, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
Return of Generating Units
At a press briefing on Monday, June 1, Energy Undersecretary Mario Marasigan said KEPCO SPC Unit 2 is expected to resume operations on June 2, 2026, while Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) Unit 3 is targeted to return on July 3. Therma Visayas Unit 2 is scheduled to come back online on Aug. 22, followed by Therma Visayas Unit 1 on August 30.
The return of the four generating units is expected to help ease supply constraints in the Visayas grid, which remains under pressure from multiple plant outages.
Current Grid Status
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Monday extended a yellow alert over the Visayas grid from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. after available capacity dropped to 2,514 megawatts (MW) against a projected peak demand of 2,437 MW.
NGCP said 10 power plants were on forced outage as of June, including nine units that have been offline since May. Another eight generating units have remained unavailable since as early as 2021, while 17 plants are operating at reduced capacities. In total, about 1,023.7 MW of generation capacity is unavailable to the grid.
The grid operator attributed the extended yellow alert to additional forced outages involving several generating units and a 64-MW increase in projected electricity demand.
A yellow alert is declared when operating reserves fall below the level required to address potential contingencies in the transmission system.
Supply and Demand Gap
The DOE said peak demand in the Visayas has exceeded 2,700 MW, while available supply has fallen to as low as 2,244 MW due largely to outages at Therma Visayas, PEDC and KEPCO SPC plants.
To help bridge the supply gap, the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection is operating at its full transfer capacity of 450 MW, allowing surplus power from Mindanao to support the Visayas grid. The DOE is also pursuing additional ancillary services, power barges, modular diesel generators and battery energy storage systems.
New Projects and Initiatives
A 30-MW battery energy storage facility in Mactan, Cebu is undergoing final testing and commissioning, while negotiations are underway for at least 20 MW of modular diesel generation capacity. Two recently commissioned renewable energy projects have also added nearly 69 MW to the Visayas grid.
Despite supply concerns in the Visayas, the DOE said the Luzon and Mindanao grids continue to maintain adequate reserves and remain in stable operating condition.
