The Visayas grid remained under a yellow alert on Monday due to high power demand forecasts and continued forced outages of major coal plants in the region, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
In an advisory, the Visayas Grid would be placed under yellow alert for six hours, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
NGCP said the peak demand in the grid reached 2,488 megawatts (MW), while available capacity stood at only 2,579 MW.
A total of 958.25 MW was unavailable to the grid as 11 power plants have been on forced outage since May 1, while another 11 plants were operating on derated capacity or with limited output.
NGCP said the yellow alert was prompted by the unavailability of several large coal plants in the Visayas, these include TVI 1, TVI 2, PEDC 3, and KSPC 2 and the high system demand forecast.
A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the contingency requirement of the transmission grid.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it is actively coordinating with the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), NGCP, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), generation companies, and industry stakeholders to expedite the safe restoration of affected facilities and implement all available measures to stabilize the grid and protect consumers.
The agency also assured the public that efforts are being accelerated to restore the affected facilities and that all necessary measures are being implemented to stabilize the grid.
