ENERGY Secretary Sharon Garin on Thursday committed to end the power shortage in the Visayas before Christmas Day this year.
‘I’ll work on it na talagang maaayos na before Christmas. It’s not easy, but that’s the target,’ Garin said on the sidelines of the Seventh Philippine International Geothermal Conference (PIGC7).
Since the start of the year, 93 yellow alerts and 30 red alerts were hoisted in Visayas.
A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement. The yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas power grid on red alert from 1:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. and yellow alert from 10 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Six power plants are on forced outage since the start of the month, six more since August, one since July, two since June, seven since May, three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021, while 16 plants are running on derated capacities, for a total of 792 megawatts unavailable to the grid.
The grid’s peak demand of 2,575 MW was more than its available capacity of 2,187 MW.
The same was observed in Mindanao. Its available capacity stood at 2,480 MW as against a peak demand of 2,546 MW. Thus, a red alert was declared from 12 noon to 9:00 p.m. while a yellow alert took effect from 10 a.m. to 12 noon and from 9:00 p.m. to 10 p.m.
NGCP reported that six plants are on forced outage on September 2026, 12 plants since August, four plants since July, one plant since June, two plants since January, one plant since 2025, and one plant since 2024, while seven plants are running on derated capacities, for a total of 841.6MW unavailable to the grid.
‘If Mindanao goes bad, then Visayas will go worse. So that’s why we need to balance it all,’ said Garin.
‘We have a lot of power plants, but many of these power plants are old or not functioning very well, derated, damaged. That’s why we issued circulars and guidelines on genco [generation company] accountability,’ said the energy chief.
The DOE is set to turn over a list of erring gencos to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the possible suspension of their operational permits after they snubbed the agency’s show-cause orders (SCOs).
‘If you have a violation or we flagged a violation, that’s strike one. We will give you a strong warning. For the second time, it could be suspension. Third would be cancellation of our COE [certificate of endorsement] or blacklisting,’ said Garin.
Garin stressed that consumers pay their electricity and therefore deserve efficient and reliable power plants. ‘So we’re trying to be very strict on our gencos, they are not regulated but we’re the ones issuing their permits. So we cannot afford to have people suffer because you don’t fix your plant, you don’t maintain or you don’t buy fuel. That’s unacceptable and that’s why people in Visayas are suffering,’ she said.