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The series of power alerts on the Visayas grid has renewed calls for the government to build new power plants dedicated to reserve capacity.
The National Association of General Managers of Electric Cooperatives (NAGMEC) said keeping reserve plants on standby could help address power shortfalls without pushing existing plants beyond their limits.
“Some of our power plants are quite old. They have declared capacities, but their shutdowns often outnumber their actual power deliveries,” pointed out NAGMEC president Dr. Allan Laniba in Filipino. He also suggested setting aside a portion of each new plant’s capacity for reserves rather than using it entirely for baseload, ensuring adequate backup supply.
(Also read: Barotac Viejo Solar Project To Power 136,000 Homes Upon 2027 Completion)
The Generation Gap
The power issue is a generation problem, not a distribution issue, according to MORE Power Assistant Manager for System Planning Engr. John Dave Jabatan. He explained that the distribution utility (DU) can only deliver as much electricity as it receives through the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
But the generation issue is not simply about having more nameplate capacity. What matters is having dependable generation available when demand peaks. Variable RE, particularly solar, produces power only when conditions allow. Solar output follows the day-night cycle and can fluctuate with cloud cover and other weather conditions. That means solar capacity alone cannot guarantee electricity supply during evening peaks or periods of poor weather.
Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel “Javi” Benitez has raised alarm over the worsening power situation in the Visayas, citing a nine-hour red alert on Sept. 5—the longest sustained alert this year. The episode followed two months of recurring supply warnings across the region.
Benitez attributed the crisis to a lack of new large-scale baseload capacity, noting that no major baseload plant has been built in the Visayas since 2019. He also pointed to the irony of Negros supplying electricity from its sugar mills and solar farms while communities on the island continue to endure rotational outages.
DOE Secretary Sharon Garin has previously acknowledged that the Visayas’ tight power supply could be a “prolonged problem,” underscoring the need for more baseload capacity to complement the region’s growing RE generation.
She added that while the Visayas has a high rate of RE facilities, such as solar and wind, the amount of electricity they produce is unreliable as they depend on weather conditions.
However, bringing new baseload facilities online could take three to five years, the official said.
Currently, three baseload plants are on unplanned outages, while another is undergoing scheduled maintenance.
The Visayas is also receiving less power from Mindanao as demand rises there and several plants remain offline. The region currently imports about 450 MW from Mindanao, which also underwent a red alert, while transmission constraints limit imports from Luzon to roughly 250 MW.
The outages are now occurring even on weekends and rainy days, when demand typically eases as offices close. In response, More Power is seeking help from the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to expedite the restoration of offline plants.
Adding to the Visayas’ generation constraints, Negros Occidental has maintained its coal-free policy since 2019, while Negros Oriental prohibits new fossil-fuel power plants under its 2021 Clean and Renewable Energy Code. Because coal-fired plants can provide steady, round-the-clock generation, these policies leave intermittent renewables and costly storage with a greater role in ensuring reliable supply as demand rises.
Iloilo Feels the Crisis
Iloilo City is losing an average of 40 MW of electricity each day to manual load dropping (MLD), equivalent to about a third of its demand. The measure has resulted in near-daily rotational outages, affecting 20,000 consumers daily.
Jabatan said the 40 MW being shed each day is roughly equivalent to taking five SM malls offline, based on an estimated 8 MW demand per mall. He stressed, “It really disrupts their quality of life,” with some experiencing interruptions two or three times a week. With MLD persisting for months alongside rising electricity rates, Jabatan described the situation as a “power crisis.”
Meanwhile, Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas warned there may be no immediate fix for the city’s continuing power interruptions and rotational brownouts. But she said that the local government is actively looking and working with stakeholders in the power sector in finding solutions.”
She also cited the planned entry of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Iloilo City as a potential new source of electricity. The integrated facility would import and regasify LNG to supply fuel to gas-fired power plants. The DOE has identified Iloilo and Cebu as potential sites for LNG and gas-to-power projects as the country expands natural gas infrastructure and seeks additional power sources.
Treñas recognized the growing frustration among Ilonggos, saying the recurring outages continue to disrupt homes, businesses, livelihoods, and everyday life.
The Cost of Unreliable Power
Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro said securing a reliable power supply is critical as the province seeks to attract new investments, expand its industries, and create more jobs.
“We want more investments. We want industries to expand. We want more businesses and more jobs for Cebuanos,” she stated. “But none of these can happen sustainably if our energy supply cannot keep pace with our growth.”
With demand rising and supply tightening, electricity costs are also climbing across the Visayas. Rates have reached P15.74/kWh under the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco), P14.28/kWh under Negros Power, and a record-high P14.96/kWh in Cebu.
“Big businesses have backup generators and compensation packages. The poor have only candles,” lamented Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez. “It is the vulnerable who are being browned out — and they are also the ones paying the highest rates.”
Meanwhile, Bacolod Rep. and House Deputy Speaker Alfredo Benitez has filed a resolution calling for a congressional inquiry into the Visayas’ recurring power outages. The resolution cited at least 93 yellow alerts and 30 red alerts recorded on the Visayas grid since the start of the year, as of Sept. 3.
“We believe that every consumer has the right to a quality and reliable electric supply,” Benitez asserted.
His son, Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez, and 11 other lawmakers filed House Resolution No. 1430 seeking firm timelines for key generation, storage, and transmission projects in the Visayas. The resolution also calls for an accounting of delays, the entities responsible, and the extent and causes of solar curtailment in Negros this year.
The Institute for Contemporary Economics (ICE) estimates that grid stress could put P72 billion to P85 billion of Western Visayas’ economic output at risk over five years. In Panay and Guimaras, seven electric cooperatives (ECs) spent only P2.38 billion, less than a quarter of their P10.52-billion capital budget, from 2022 to 2024, underscoring the region’s infrastructure needs.
(Also read: 29 Electric Cooperatives Secure Long-Term Power Lifeline For Luzon, Visayas)
Build Capacity, Demand Accountability
Garin has described the continuing rotational brownouts across the Visayas as “unacceptable,” vowing to prioritize grid stability.
Speaking at a press conference on Sept. 7, Garin said the DOE is treating the situation with “utmost urgency” by working to restore generation, adding backup capacity and addressing bottlenecks. She stressed that accountability would follow once the immediate crisis is contained.
“The most expensive electricity is no electricity at all,” Garin said.
But for a BusinessMirror editorial, accountability is precisely what the Visayas power crisis demands now. “ The DOE and relevant agencies must answer why plants have been allowed to remain offline for years without replacement capacity coming online,” it stated. “They must explain why derated plants have not been repaired or decommissioned and replaced. They must justify the years of warnings ignored and contingency plans that clearly proved inadequate.”
It added that the list of forced outages points to a problem that has been years in the making, with some plants offline since 2021. Facilities remaining out of service for years cannot be dismissed as temporary operational setbacks. They point to deeper institutional failures and a crisis that policymakers have had ample time to address.
Power Watch Negros consumer advocate Wennie Sancho dismissed Garin’s recent statements as “rhetoric.”
“They were merely words of assurance but far from reality,” he observed.
Freeman business columnist Fidel Abalos stressed that the recurring brownouts are exacting a steep financial toll on households and businesses, from spoiled food and disrupted schooling to lost production, manpower, and revenues.
“A BPO in IT Park with 300 agents loses 300 man-hours per hour of interruption and pays service-level agreement (SLA) penalties in dollars. A cold storage operator loses P100,000 in thawed goods,” he wrote. “Multiply that by thousands of MSMEs, which account for 96 percent of businesses in Central Visayas, and the losses are immensely huge.”
But the power crisis goes far beyond economic losses. Recurring outages also disrupt healthcare, education, and other essential services, making reliable electricity a public necessity.
The urgency is underscored by data presented by the NGCP during a congressional hearing: generation problems accounted for 235, or 96.7%, of the 243 red alerts recorded nationwide from 2016 to 2025. The numbers point to a problem that cannot be solved by managing outages alone.
If new generation takes three to five years to come online, the government and industry cannot afford to lose another year debating what is already clear. The region needs power, and it needs it reliably. The time to build the capacity to deliver it is now.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HnkpRaafr/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://www.panaynews.net/visayas-in-dire-need-of-new-baseload-power-plants-garin
https://old.dailyguardian.com.ph/your-brownout-is-a-cebu-problem-with-an-iloilo-address
https://www.dailyguardian.com.ph/blog/visayas-power-probe-sought-as-grid-hits-another-red-alert
https://www.dailyguardian.com.ph/blog/visayas-outages-unacceptable-fix-it-blame-later-doe-chiefx
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2026/09/08/grid-on-the-brink-when-power-fails-the-economy-pays
https://www.panaynews.net/a-test-for-sharon-garin
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1063875
https://energy.com.ph/negros-oriental-enacts-phs-first-renewable-energy-code