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The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is moving to impose sanctions on power generation companies whose prolonged plant outages have contributed to recurring yellow alerts in the Visayas grid, while also revising reliability rules to ensure penalties better reflect the severity and impact of violations.
ERC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Francis Saturnino Juan said the commission is preparing to issue formal show-cause orders before the end of the year to require power generators that exceeded allowable outage limits to explain why they should not face penalties.
The move comes as the Visayas continues to grapple with tight power supply conditions driven by multiple generating units remaining offline.
Generators Under Regulatory Review
The ERC has already sent initial notices to generation companies found to have breached the maximum allowable number of planned and unplanned outage days under its reliability standards. The notices direct the firms to explain the circumstances behind the extended shutdowns of their facilities.
Juan said the commission intends to strengthen its enforcement framework by revising the rules governing power plant outages.
“We’re making it more commensurate to the violation and its impact,” he told reporters, referring to proposed changes that would align penalties more closely with the consequences of prolonged outages on grid reliability.
The existing framework, embodied in ERC Resolution No. 10, Series of 2020, sets limits on the number of allowable outage days for generating facilities based on their technology. Companies that exceed these thresholds may be subject to regulatory sanctions after due process.
While the commission has identified several generators that exceeded the prescribed limits, Juan declined to identify the companies involved.
Limited Enforcement
Despite its authority to penalize erring generators, the ERC acknowledged that its enforcement options remain constrained by the region’s fragile power supply situation.
“We can only issue fines,” Juan said. “We cannot close them down because we’re already lacking power supply. We cannot revoke their licenses, because we’re already looking for power.”
The regulator is also finalizing amendments to the current reliability indices and outage rules, which Juan said have already been approved internally and are expected to be released soon.
The revisions are intended to improve accountability while encouraging better plant reliability across the country’s power generation fleet.
Grid Alerts Continue
The regulatory action follows months of repeated grid alerts in the Visayas, highlighting the region’s continuing supply challenges.
Since the start of the year, the Visayas grid has recorded 44 yellow alerts and five red alerts. Yellow alerts are declared when operating reserves fall below required levels, while red alerts indicate that the available power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has consistently attributed the alerts to the forced shutdown of several generating facilities. In its latest advisory, the grid operator again placed the Visayas grid under a yellow alert between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sunday.
As of June 26, a total of 1,011.5 megawatts of generating capacity remained unavailable in the Visayas, reflecting the scale of the ongoing outage problem.
The unavailable capacity includes 13 power plants that suffered forced outages during June alone, eight plants that have remained offline since May, one facility unavailable since March, and three generating units that have yet to return to service since last year.
Among the largest contributors to the capacity shortfall are two generating units of Therma Visayas Inc. and Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp., both of which remain out of service. Their continued unavailability has further reduced reserve margins and heightened the vulnerability of the Visayas grid to additional supply disruptions.
The ERC said the planned regulatory measures are intended to reinforce compliance with reliability standards while addressing the operational issues that have repeatedly strained the region’s electricity supply.
Source:
https://mb.com.ph/2026/06/29/erc-ready-to-penalize-gencos-over-chronic-outages-in-visayas
https://www.philstar.com/nation/2026/05/22/2529644/yellow-alert-persists-visayas-grid