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At least 20,000 electricity consumers in Iloilo City are affected each day by rotational brownouts as a worsening power supply shortage across the Visayas forces the implementation of manual load dropping, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) said.
The utility sheds an average of about 40 megawatts (MW) of electricity daily through manual load dropping (MLD), equivalent to roughly one-third of Iloilo City’s power demand, according to Engr. John Dave Jabatan, assistant manager for system planning of MORE Power.
Jabatan said the scale of the daily power reduction was roughly comparable to shutting down the electricity consumption of about five large shopping malls, assuming each consumes around 8 MW.
He explained that the interruptions do not necessarily affect the same customers each day, as MORE Power rotates the areas and feeders covered by the load-dropping schedule.
“One consumer or one household, in one week, can experience two or three manual load droppings,” Jabatan said, particularly when the measure is implemented even during weekends.
The situation has prompted Jabatan to describe the continuing supply shortage as a “power crisis,” as outages persist despite periods when electricity demand would normally be lower.
Major Plants Remain Offline
The Visayas grid has experienced longer red and yellow alerts in recent weeks, resulting in higher allocations for manual load dropping among distribution utilities, Jabatan said.
The shortage has been driven largely by the unavailability of several major generating facilities, including large coal-fired plants, as well as reduced imports of electricity from Mindanao.
The two units of Therma Visayas Inc. in Toledo City, Cebu, each with a capacity of about 169 MW, have been offline since the start of the summer months. Combined, the two units account for more than 330 MW of generating capacity.
Jabatan said the units encountered technical and internal problems that required extended repairs.
The facilities were earlier expected to return to service by the third or last week of August, but their restoration was delayed. Jabatan cited reports indicating that one unit was targeted to return on Aug. 30, while the other was expected to resume operations by Sept. 11.
Another generating facility, KEPCO Unit 1, with a capacity of more than 100 MW, also went offline, further tightening available supply in the region.
Panay Energy Development Corporation’s Unit 3 in Iloilo City, which has a capacity of 150 MW, has also been among the major generating units cited in the supply problem.
As of August, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) reported that nine power plants in the Visayas were on forced outage while 18 others were operating at reduced capacity.
The outages and deratings resulted in a total of 981.9 MW of unavailable capacity to the grid.
Supply Pressure Beyond Visayas
The situation has been compounded by limited power imports from Mindanao, where demand has also increased, and several plants have undergone planned and unplanned outages, Jabatan said.
The Visayas was already facing a supply deficit even with imports from Luzon, which remain limited by transmission constraints.
NGCP also reported additional outages in Mindanao toward the end of August, including the forced outage of 150 MW at Therma South Inc. Unit 2 in Davao on Aug. 29 and 138 MW at GNPK Unit 1 in Lanao del Norte on Aug. 30.
The continued shortage has resulted in rotational outages even on Saturdays, Sundays, and rainy days, periods when power demand is usually expected to decline because offices and other establishments are closed or electricity consumption is lower.
“Even on weekends and during rainy days, we experience rotational brownouts,” Jabatan said, describing the generation deficiency as increasingly serious.
A Generation Problem
Jabatan stressed that the problem does not stem from MORE Power’s distribution operations.
“This is a generation issue,” he said, explaining that the distribution utility can only deliver the electricity transmitted to it through the NGCP grid.
MORE Power also said it does not receive direct operational updates from generating companies and instead relies on advisories coursed through NGCP to distribution utilities. The utility likewise rejected suggestions that it benefits financially from the rotational interruptions.
Jabatan said MLD is implemented only as a last resort to protect the stability of the power system and prevent a possible grid collapse.
Manual load dropping cannot be used to avoid buying expensive electricity or to keep power rates lower, he said, adding that such actions are prohibited under the Philippine Grid Code and could result in penalties.
MORE Power said it is coordinating with the Department of Energy and NGCP and provides information on the extent of load dropping and the number of affected consumers when requested.
The utility is also seeking government intervention, including from the DOE and the Energy Regulatory Commission, to help fast-track the restoration of offline power plants.
MORE Power said the normalization of the Visayas power situation will largely depend on whether major generating facilities meet their restoration schedules. The utility also said it hopes the delayed power plants can return earlier than expected to ease the burden of recurring outages and rising electricity costs on consumers.
Source:
https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/09/01/regions/iloilo-city-addresses-power-crisis/2415065