14 hours ago
8
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
May 15, 2026 | 9:58am
Transmission lines are seen in this undated file photo from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. NGCP placed the Luzon and Visayas grids under red alert on May 15, 2026, for the third straight day.
NGCP, file
MANILA, Philippines — The Luzon and Visayas power grids will fall back under red alert status Friday afternoon, May 15, for a third straight day, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said.
NGCP, in its 8 a.m. advisory, placed Luzon on red alert from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., bracketed by yellow alerts from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The Visayas grid will be under red alert from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., with yellow alerts from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
No schedule for manual load dropping had been released as of 9 a.m., though the rotating brownouts are likely to return if demand outpaces supply during the red alert window.
Luzon's available capacity stands at 13,508 MW against a projected peak demand of 13,881 MW — a shortfall of 373 MW.
The grid operator said 16 plants have been on forced outage since May, one since April, three since March, one since February, three since January, three since 2025, two since 2024, and one out since 2019.
Another 14 plants are running on derated capacities, taking 4,160 MW off the grid.
The Visayas grid is in tighter shape, with available capacity of 2,441 MW against peak demand of 2,661 MW, a 220-MW deficit.
Eleven plants have been on forced outage since May 2026, one since March 2026, four since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023, and one since 2021.
A red alert is the highest level NGCP issues, triggered when power supply cannot meet demand or the grid's regulating requirement. It is the cue for distribution utilities like Meralco to begin cutting power to selected areas on rotation to keep the system from collapsing. Yellow alerts signal that the operating margin is too thin to absorb a sudden plant trip.
NGCP said the Tayabas-Ilijan 500-kV line and the Dasmariñas-Ilijan 500-kV line — two of the transmission lines whose failure earlier this week contributed to the supply crunch — were restored Wednesday at 2:44 p.m. and 4:52 p.m., respectively. The grid operator is still waiting for the affected plants to resynchronize with the grid.
