INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — The tight power supply situation in the Visayas is expected to persist until August as several major coal-fired power plants remain offline, according to the country’s grid operator.
At a media briefing on Monday, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) assistant vice president Cynthia Alabanza said the region’s supply constraints, which have persisted since May 12, stem largely from outages at large coal facilities.
“The situation in the Visayas has been aggravated by the outages of several large power plants,” Alabanza told reporters.
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“Of the four major plants that went offline, only one has resumed operations so far, which is not enough to stabilize the system. The latest information given to me is that the remaining large power plants are expected to come back online by August,” she said.
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READ: Outages of 4 coal plants trigger new yellow alert over Visayas
Department of Energy (DOE) officials earlier said Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp. is scheduled to resume operations by July 3, while Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. are expected to return online by August.
Grid on alert
With roughly 900 megawatts of generating capacity unavailable, NGCP has repeatedly placed the Visayas grid under yellow and, at times, red alert status.
The region, which relies heavily on power imports from Luzon and Mindanao, has been placed under yellow alert almost daily in recent weeks.
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READ: Visayas grid on yellow alert again on June 12
A yellow alert signals thinning power reserves, leaving the grid vulnerable to service disruptions in the event of another plant outage. A red alert indicates insufficient supply to meet demand and raises the risk of rotational brownouts unless electricity consumption is curtailed.
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Possible penalties
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said last week that generation companies responsible for prolonged forced outages may face substantial financial penalties.
The DOE is evaluating the performance of firms whose facilities have remained offline, including those that have been inactive for six months or longer, she added.
According to her, the penalties will depend on the duration of the outages and their impact on the power grid.
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However, Garin cautioned that any move to suspend operations or revoke permits of power generation companies must be carefully studied given the potential implications for the energy sector. /cb
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