The government is working to restore nearly 600 megawatts of lost power capacity in the Visayas after four power plants went on forced outage, with repairs expected to be completed within the next few weeks to months, a senior Palace official said Saturday.
Undersecretary Erwin Sta. Ana of the Office of the Executive Secretary told DZRH News program “Special on Saturday” on June 6 that the outages have contributed to rotating brownouts in the Visayas, and that the government has convened key energy agencies to address both the immediate supply crisis and longer-term grid stability concerns.
“Mayroon po tayong mga apat na power plants diyan na nasira, so kailangan ang initial measure doon ay tuloy-tuloy ang pagkumpuni ng mga planta na iyon, and sana in the next couple of weeks and months ay maayos po iyan. Almost 600 megawatts po ang outage because of those power plants,” Sta. Ana said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had earlier directed energy officials to immediately address power supply and grid issues in the Visayas, with Palace Press Officer Claire Castro saying on June 4 that the President’s directive was to “fix or normalize the situation at the soonest possible time.”
The Visayas grid has experienced 17 yellow alerts and four red alerts since mid-May, with more than 20 power plants on forced outage, including major coal-fired units such as Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas Inc. and Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp., according to the Palace.
Sta. Ana said Marcos called together the Department of Energy, Energy Regulatory Commission, National Electrification Administration, Transco, and the National Power Corporation to discuss supply stability and chart immediate interventions.
The June 4 meeting also tackled the construction of new power plants, the expansion of the transmission network, and measures to address delays in the construction of submarine cables and transmission lines, Castro said.
Marcos likewise instructed the ERC to conduct a performance review of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and ensure the completion of its commitments and deliverables, Castro added.
Sta. Ana noted that the power supply crunch is partly seasonal, with electricity consumption typically spiking during summer, but stressed that the government must develop a deeper institutional memory to anticipate and prevent similar outages in future years.
