Visayas power probe sought as grid hits another red alert

By Glazyl M. Jopson

BACOLOD CITY – Lawmakers from Negros Occidental have sought separate congressional inquiries into the continuing and worsening power outages in the Visayas grid, which slipped back into red alert on Tuesday afternoon.

Bacolod Rep. and House Deputy Speaker Alfredo “Albee” Benitez filed a resolution directing the Committee on Visayas Development to conduct a probe in aid of legislation on the power outages, seek accountability, and ensure a stable, adequate and reliable power supply for the Visayas region.

Benitez noted in the resolution that since the start of the year, the Visayas grid has registered at least 93 yellow alerts, and 30 red alerts as of Sept. 3.

On Sept. 4, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines officially issued yet another critical red and yellow alerts for the Visayas grid due to a severe power supply shortage.

“Nabatian ko ang inyo hibubun-ot. Tama na nga penitensya” (I heard your sentiments. Enough of your struggles), Benitez said in a Facebook post.

He stressed that the city deserves 24/7 uninterrupted power supply.

“We believe that every consumer has the right to a quality and reliable electric supply,” Benitez said.

The Negros Electric Power Corporation in its recent press briefing announced the improvement of the power supply starting this month, but cautioned on the continuing rotational brownouts until the end of the year, depending on the availability from the generation.

Amid the backlash hitting NEPC for the manual load dropping, as a distribution utility, they also depend on the grid’s status.

The NEPC is trying to look for other sources like resorting to the use of small generators.

His son, Negros Occidental 3rd district Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez, along with 11 other lawmakers, including 5th district Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo, filed House Resolution No. 1430 on Monday, which directs the Committee on Energy to inquire, in aid of legislation, into what Visayas consumers paid for ancillary services this year and whether the reserves they paid for were delivered when the grid went under red alert.

The measure was filed jointly by Reps. Julienne Baronda (Iloilo City), Maria Vanessa Aumentado (2nd District, Bohol), Kristine Alexie Tutor (3rd District, Bohol), Junard Chan (Lapu-Lapu City), Eduardo Rama, Jr. (2nd District, Cebu City), Kathryn Joyce Gorriceta, MD (2nd District, Iloilo), Anna Victoria Veloso-Tuazon (3rd District, Leyte), Carl Nicolas Cari (5th District, Leyte), Patricia Calderon (7th District, Cebu), and Daphne Lagon (6th District, Cebu).

The resolution was received by the House Bills and Index Service on Sept. 7, 2026, during the Second Regular Session of the Twentieth Congress.

“The Visayas is speaking as one,” the younger Benitez said.

“Together with 11 fellow Visayas representatives as co-principal authors, and 25 more who have signed on or committed to co-author, we are calling NGCP, the ERC, the DOE, IEMOP, and the power generators to account,” he added.

“Kada sentimo nga halin sa konsumidor dapat may sabat. Kon wala nag-abot ang reserba, dapat ibalik ang bayad,” he said.

“Nagatindog kita para sa kada konsumidor nga nagbayad sang reserba nga wala nag-abot. Gin-file naton ang House Resolution No. 1430 agud may sabat ang kada sentimo nga ila ginbayad,” he added.

A day after the filing, the Visayas grid remained under alert conditions.

A Visayas grid alert status update issued as of 1 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2026, placed the grid under red alert from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and under yellow alert from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Available capacity stood at 2,258 megawatts against a peak demand of 2,589 MW.

The update reported eight plants on forced outage in September, four plants since August 2026, one plant since July, two plants since June, seven plants since May, three plants since 2025, two plants since 2024, two plants since 2023, and one plant since 2021.

Fourteen plants were running on derated capacities, for a total of 790.7 MW unavailable to the grid.

The update cited two factors behind the extension of the red and yellow alert declarations: an increase in forecasted system demand by around 100 MW, and the absence of power imports from the Mindanao grid.

A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement, while a yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

Ancillary services are the standby reserves NGCP buys to cover sudden plant outages and demand spikes.

The cost is passed on to consumers in full, according to the young Benitez.

For the July 2026 billing period, the NGCP reported that ancillary services rates rose from PHP 0.7941 to PHP 1.0391 per kilowatt-hour, or 30.85 percent, an increase carried into August bills.

He said that NGCP bills ancillary services separately for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and consumers have seen an ancillary services line on their bills since Energy Regulatory Commission Resolution No. 04, Series of 2026 took effect.

However, the Visayas rate, its movement since January, and the list of who was paid are not on the bill.

Benitez wants all three on the record. The charges were collected through a year of repeated grid alerts.

The first red alert of 2026 was recorded on May 13, according to the resolution.

On July 8, 1,092.8 MW were unavailable because of forced outages and deratings, and manual load dropping hit parts of Cebu, Mactan, Aklan, Antique, Bohol, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo.

On Aug. 26, 938.9 MW were unavailable, with 32 plants on forced outage. Red alerts returned on Sept. 2, 3, and 4, with rotating interruptions in Cebu.

The resolution stated that these recurring alerts and rotating interruptions have disrupted households, businesses, hospitals, schools, farms, water systems, and public services across the Visayas.

Plant outages did most of the damage, compounded by limited imports from Mindanao.

The resolution likewise stated that the 2026 Visayas alerts were driven primarily by generation-forced outages and deratings rather than by transmission failures, consistent with the historical record that the overwhelming majority of red alerts arise from generation-related causes.

Reserves are procured by NGCP through Ancillary Services Procurement Agreements approved by the ERC and through the Reserve Market operated by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines within the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, which began commercial operations in January 2024.

Benitez said he accepted the NGCP’s statement that it has earned nothing from ancillary services and remits the money to generation companies under contract and to IEMOP for reserves bought on the Reserve Market.

“If the money passed through NGCP, then somebody received it, and that somebody can be named,” he said.

The inquiry would require NGCP, the ERC, the Department of Energy, IEMOP, the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives of the Visayas, and the generation and ancillary services providers to produce the amounts charged to Visayas consumers month by month, the payments made to each provider, and the megawatts of reserve required, procured, available, scheduled, and dispatched during each red alert.

The resolution also seeks the monthly figures separated between ERC-approved ASPAs and the Reserve Market, together with the Visayas-specific ancillary services rate for January to August 2026, and the utilization rate of firm ASPA contracts.

He also wants to know whether penalties for failure to deliver scheduled reserves were imposed under the WESM Rules and the providers’ contracts.

The resolution asked for firm completion dates for the generation, storage, and transmission projects the Visayas is counting on, including the next stage of reinforcement for the Cebu-Negros-Panay corridor and the battery installations the DOE is lining up, along with the cause of any delay, the entity responsible, and the extent and causes of solar curtailment in Negros this year.

The DOE expects new baseload plants in the Visayas from 2028, which leaves two more years of paying for reserves that have to work.

“Every centavo of this charge is passed on to the consumer, so every centavo has to be accounted for. We paid for reserves all year. The grid still went red 30 times,” he said.

“Somebody got paid for those days, and I want to know who and what they delivered. If reserves that were paid for were not delivered, the ERC should determine whether refunds or penalties are due,” he added.

The resolution also asked the committee to recommend how the charges should be published and how delivery should be checked, and to ask the ERC whether any of the money should come back.

The measure invoked Republic Act No. 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, particularly Section 2, which declares it a policy of the State to ensure the quality, reliability, security, and affordability of electric power, transparent and reasonable prices, public accountability, and consumer protection.

It noted that EPIRA Section 37 directs the DOE to prepare and update the Power Development Program integrated into the Philippine Energy Plan, while the transmission concession framework under Sections 8, 9, and 21 requires a Transmission Development Plan.

The inquiry is also intended to determine whether amendments to EPIRA and to the rules on reserve procurement, public disclosure, accountability, and timely project completion are warranted.

Copies of the resolution are to be furnished to the DOE, the ERC, NGCP, and IEMOP for their information and appropriate action.