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The Visayas grid was placed under red alert on June 10 as rising electricity demand coincided with the unavailability of several power plants, tightening power reserves across the island group. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the red alert was in effect from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Grid conditions remained strained into the evening, prompting a yellow alert from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. During the red alert period, available capacity reached 2,556 megawatts (MW), while peak demand climbed to 2,423 MW, leaving only a narrow reserve margin to support the system.
A red alert is declared when available power can no longer adequately cover consumer demand and the operating reserves needed to keep the grid stable. Under these conditions, utilities may implement rotational brownouts or scheduled outages in selected areas to ease pressure on the system and prevent a larger, widespread grid failure.
Tight power supply in the Visayas and Mindanao is expected to push electricity prices higher in the coming weeks. The Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices could climb to around ₱9 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), particularly if power plant outages continue to constrain supply.
In May, the Visayas recorded the highest average WESM price at ₱10.20/kWh, up 81.4% from April, while Mindanao’s rate surged 64.8% to ₱9.28/kWh. Luzon also saw prices rise 24.8% to ₱7.02/kWh.
(Also read: Visayas Supply Crisis Sends Warning Signal For Rising Electricity Costs)
Visayas’ Reliance on External Power
Concerns over the Visayas’ reliance on electricity from neighboring island grids have persisted for years. In January 2026, the Cebu Electric Rights Advocate (CERA) warned that Cebu’s power requirements were growing by roughly 150 MW annually, outstripping local generation capacity and creating what the group described as a “dangerous dependence on imported power from nearby islands.”
The Visayas relies on electricity imports from Luzon and Mindanao, leaving it exposed to supply pressures whenever interconnection capacity from the two major island grids is constrained.
Recent developments have underscored this vulnerability, with the NGCP attributing the Visayas red alert to reduced high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power imports from Mindanao.
Power supply conditions in the Visayas tightened after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Sarangani province on June 8 triggered widespread outages in Mindanao’s generation facilities, disrupting output and reducing available transfers between the island grids. The resulting shortfall prompted grid alerts across both regions, with outages affecting power plants and leading to interruptions for an estimated 850,000 households in Mindanao.
The quake activity disrupted several power plants in Sarangani province and the Davao Region, contributing to tighter supply conditions alongside elevated demand forecasts. Mindanao’s available capacity stood at 2,731 MW against a projected peak demand of 2,611 MW, with about 1,259.9 MW reported unavailable to the grid. As a result, Mindanao was placed under its first yellow alert of the year, while the Visayas has already logged 29 such alerts to date.
Earlier in May, transmission line disruptions in Luzon triggered a chain of red and yellow alerts across the Luzon and Visayas grids, resulting in rotational power interruptions in several areas. The resulting manual load dropping affected more than 3.9 million consumers across Metro Manila, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal.
The Visayas grid was placed under red alert from May 13 to 15 due to the available supply. The situation was worsened by tight conditions in Luzon, which reduced power transfers to the Visayas and triggered a cascading shortfall across the interconnected grids.
Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Sharon Garin noted, “Nawala ang ibang planta dahil na-cut off ng grid…ang epekto niyan is up to Visayas kasi ang Visayas, dependent din sa Luzon power…so ngayon, di na maka-export si Luzon sa Visayas.” (Some plants went offline because they were cut off from the grid…the impact reaches as far as the Visayas since the Visayas also depends on Luzon power…so now, Luzon can no longer export to the Visayas.)
Repeated grid alerts and inter-island supply disruptions highlight the Visayas’ reliance on external power, underscoring the need to strengthen inland power generation to improve energy security and stability.
(Also read: Can the Philippines Power Its Future With an Aggressive Renewable Strategy?)
Baseload Power Needed
Garin acknowledged that recurring power alerts in the Visayas highlight the need for more baseload capacity to meet rising demand and support economic growth, alongside ongoing renewable energy (RE) expansion under the Philippine Energy Plan. “What Visayas needs is a steady baseload,” Garin said.
While around 45% of the region’s power mix is sourced from RE, this adds variability to its overall system output. Unless variable renewable energy can reliably serve as baseload, mid-merit, or peaking capacity and be dispatched on short notice during demand spikes, which it cannot yet do in its current state of development, the Visayas grid is left facing a significant supply shortfall.
For now, the DOE is focusing on power plants under forced outage, saying that an assessment of affected facilities is expected within the first half of the year, after which penalties—including possible shutdowns—may be considered for persistent non-compliance. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), working with the DOE, is conducting joint inspections and closely monitoring plant recovery.
However, it can be recalled that in 2024, former DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla proposed reviewing the allowable downtime for power plant maintenance, saying longer shutdown periods could improve system reliability. “We should allow also the plants sufficient time to do their maintenance work. We’re comparing the amount of time that we allow the plants to undertake those,” he told reporters at the time.
He cited Japan’s maintenance framework, where outage durations vary by technology to ensure proper inspection and upkeep, noting that extended maintenance windows could enable more thorough checks and strengthen long-term plant performance.
With the DOE admitting the need for additional baseload capacity in the Visayas, Garin said the rapid expansion of variable energy sources such as solar and wind has exposed gaps in dispatchable generation needed to balance fluctuating demand. The region still lacks sufficient plants to provide that stability, while Garin added that developing baseload facilities typically takes three to five years.
To this, a Visayan Star editorial sharply responded, “If it will take 3-5 years to build baseload assets, the DOE and the power sector should have started sooner, rather than the usual later. How much longer do the people of Visayas have to live with seasonal yellow and red alerts that should’ve been preventable through proper planning?”
Given the Visayas’ strong growth outlook, analysts stress that action is needed now, as forecasts of a strengthening El Niño in the final months of the year through January could further widen the country’s power supply gap and strain already tight conditions.
Meanwhile, CERA has called for the immediate construction of island-based baseload power plants to address what it described as “Cebu’s risky reliance” on submarine cable imports. The group also urged the DOE and local utilities to present a clear and transparent roadmap, warning that failure to act could turn “critical” supply forecasts into recurring daily blackouts.
Sources:
https://mb.com.ph/2026/06/10/visayas-alerts-mindanao-outages-threaten-fresh-power-price-surge
https://insiderph.com/groups-warn-of-looming-power-crisis-in-cebu-threatening-growth
https://mb.com.ph/2026/05/26/ngcp-tells-house-joint-panel-reports-on-tripping-submitted-on-time
https://www.youtube.com/live/bv-y1EgIezg
https://mb.com.ph/2026/06/03/doe-visayas-re-surplus-fails-to-prevent-threat-of-rotating-brownouts
https://mb.com.ph/2026/06/03/doe-visayas-re-surplus-fails-to-prevent-threat-of-rotating-brownouts
https://business.inquirer.net/593120/visayas-in-dire-need-of-new-baseload-power-plants-says-garin