ILOILO City – The Visayas power grid returned to normal operating conditions after the restoration of two Mindanao power plants allowed the full 450 megawatts (MW) of electricity to flow to the region, easing supply pressure that had raised the risk of power interruptions in Western Visayas.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), in its Grid Alert Status advisory as of 7:30 a.m. on September 18, said all three major grids were under normal operating conditions based on current supply and demand forecasts.
Grid conditions in the Visayas improved following the return to service of Therma South, Inc. (TSI) Unit 1 and the GNPower Kauswagan (GNPK) coal-fired power plant in Mindanao.
Their return enabled the full 450 MW of power to be exported from Mindanao to the Visayas through the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project (MVIP).
As of Friday morning, the Visayas had an available capacity of 2,672 MW against a peak demand of 2,308 MW, leaving a margin of 364 MW.
The improved supply situation is expected to reduce the need for NGCP to request manual load dropping (MLD) from distribution utilities in the Visayas, particularly in Western Visayas.
NGCP, however, warned that the grid remains vulnerable, as an outage involving a major generating plant could still trigger a yellow alert.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
During a recent Regional Development Council meeting, Department of Energy (DOE) secretary Sharon Garin said part of the government’s short-term response is closely monitoring generating plants that have gone offline to ensure their timely return to service.
This includes facilitating the return of generating units under forced outage, including large plants operated by Therma Visayas, Inc. and Panay Energy Development Corporation in the Visayas, as well as TSI and GNPower Kauswagan in Mindanao.
The scheduled return of these generating units in September and October 2026 is intended to restore available capacity, rebuild power reserves, and reduce the risk of recurring yellow and red alerts in the Visayas.
Beyond immediate measures, the DOE is looking at additional generation investments that could strengthen Panay’s electricity supply beginning in 2028.
Panay Island is expected to receive an additional 135 MW of baseload capacity in 2028, another 270 MW in 2029, and 150 MW in 2030.
The region could also gain 220 MW of gas-fired mid-merit capacity by 2028, providing a more flexible source of electricity that can respond to fluctuations in power demand and supply.
These projects are intended to provide dependable and flexible capacity for households, businesses, industries and future investments as Western Visayas’ economy and electricity requirements continue to expand.
The DOE is also pursuing the Mindoro-Panay Interconnection Project as a strategic component of the region’s long-term energy security.
Once completed, the project will connect the Visayas Grid to the transmission link between Batangas and Mindoro, establishing a critical loop between Luzon and the Visayas and allowing additional electricity to move between the two grids.
The interconnection is expected to give the power system greater flexibility during supply constraints and plant outages while strengthening the grids’ ability to share available electricity and respond to the growing power requirements of Western Visayas and the broader Visayas region./PN
