Yellow alert persists in Visayas grid

MANILA, Philippines — Tight electricity supply and high system demand continued to hound the Visayas power grid, prompting another yellow alert that lasted for five hours yesterday.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines issued the alert, effective from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., after nearly 900 megawatts (MW) of capacity became unavailable.

It was the ninth yellow alert in the Visayas in just 10 days, bringing the total to 11  so far this year.

Latest available data showed that 20 power plants were on forced outage, while 14 others were running at a derated capacity.

Mark Anthony Ynoc, former president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the recurring yellow alerts in the Visayas underscore the need for long-term energy planning and more “aggressive investment” in the power sector.

“Recurring grid alerts and high energy costs can discourage investments in high-value industries such as data centers, electric vehicle assembly and semiconductor manufacturing,” Ynoc said.

A yellow alert is issued when power supply is about to become insufficient. If conditions worsen, it may escalate to a red alert, which is raised when supply can no longer meet consumers’ demand.

Ynoc said high power costs and frequent outages weaken the competitiveness of businesses as these disrupt operations and can damage sensitive equipment.

“Unfortunately, this places Cebu and the Philippines at a disadvantage compared to our neighboring Asian economies that already offer more reliable and lower-cost energy infrastructure,” Ynoc said.

He said strengthening energy security must become a national priority to remain competitive in attracting future investments.