DOE orders urgent VisMin plant repairs amid power alerts

The Department of Energy (DOE) has directed the immediate restoration of several power plants in the Visayas and Mindanao following a series of yellow alerts due to reduced energy supply caused by forced outages and derated facilities.

As of August 5, 14 power plants in the Visayas were on forced outage, cutting off 385.1 megawatts (MW) from the grid, while five others were operating below capacity, reducing supply by another 348.4 MW.

In Mindanao, 11 plants were offline, removing 558.8 MW from the system, while three others were derated by 41 MW.

DOE Secretary Sharon Garin said the delay in restoring these facilities is no longer acceptable as the grid faces mounting strain.

“We must bring these plants back online without delay,” Garin said, emphasizing the urgency of stabilizing the power supply across both regions.

DOE Undersecretary Mario Marasigan has been tasked to coordinate directly with generation companies to accelerate the restoration timeline and ensure compliance with the agency’s directive.

The Visayas grid was placed under yellow alert on August 5 — the third time this month — as peak demand reached 2,475 MW, nearing the available capacity of 2,528 MW.

Mindanao also entered yellow alert status on August 1 due to a similarly thin reserve margin.

Yellow alerts are issued by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) when reserves fall below the required contingency level but do not yet result in rotating power outages.

To help relieve pressure on the grid, the DOE activated the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which allows large electricity consumers to temporarily go off-grid by using their own generators during peak hours.

Distribution utilities such as MORE Power and Visayan Electric Company (VECO) have confirmed their readiness to implement ILP protocols to support the national energy conservation effort.

“The smallest energy-saving action counts,” Garin said, calling on households, businesses, and industries to conserve electricity, especially during peak demand periods.

She stressed that energy efficiency remains a key component of the country’s short-term grid reliability strategy while long-term supply development continues.

The Philippines has been working to address its supply-demand challenges through a mix of energy efficiency programs, renewable integration, and new baseload plant developments, but outages and derated capacity remain key issues in grid operations.

The DOE has also called on private sector partners to expedite plant maintenance schedules and improve contingency measures to avoid further disruptions.

With demand projected to remain high through the latter part of the year, the department warned that sustained outages could continue to strain grid reliability unless urgent corrective action is taken.