• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Deputy Speaker Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez filed on Monday, Sept. 7 a resolution seeking a congressional inquiry into the power outages affecting the Visayas grid.
He cited repeated yellow and red alerts and serious concerns over the reliability and adequacy of the region’s electricity supply.
In the resolution, Benitez directed the House Committee on Visayas Development to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the causes of the persistent power shortages and identify long-term measures to ensure a stable, adequate, reliable and reasonably priced power supply in the region.
The resolution cited data showing that the Visayas grid had recorded at least 93 yellow alerts and 30 red alerts since the beginning of the year until Sept. 3.
On Sept. 4, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) again issued critical red and yellow alerts for the Visayas grid due to severe power supply shortage.
According to the NGCP report cited in the resolution, Cebu emerged as a weak link in the Visayas grid, with a simulated shortfall of 422 megawatts (MW) during the evening peak.
Peak demand reached 1,077 MW while dependable capacity stood at only 655 MW.
The supply deficiency prompted the implementation of load-shedding measures and required electricity to be drawn from the grids of Panay, Negros, Leyte-Samar and Bohol.
Benitez said the recurring rotational brownouts have already had significant consequences for households and the economy, with outages reportedly lasting from about an hour to as long as five to nine hours.
The resolution said prolonged outages have caused economic losses for businesses, disrupted classes and other learning activities, endangered patients dependent on electricity-powered medical equipment, and threatened investor confidence in the Visayas as a center of trade, tourism and industry.
The measure also raised concerns over the large amount of generating capacity currently unavailable to the grid.
Citing NGCP data, the resolution said 12 power plants were on forced outage in September 2026, in addition to several plants that had been offline since previous months and years.
It said six plants had been on forced outage since August, one since July, two since June, seven since May, three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023 and one since as far back as 2021.
Sixteen other plants were reportedly operating at derated capacities, bringing the total unavailable generating capacity to 972.6 MW.
Benitez’s resolution questioned the prolonged forced outages, particularly those involving plants that have reportedly been unavailable for several years.
It said the situation raises concerns about compliance by power generation companies and grid operators with prudent maintenance standards, rehabilitation programs and their obligations under licenses, permits and power supply agreements.
The proposed inquiry will also examine whether existing long-term generation and transmission planning is adequate, whether new power capacity is being added at a sufficient pace, and whether interconnection facilities with the Mindanao grid are adequate to support the Visayas during periods of supply deficiency.
The resolution further called for a review of contingency and reserve requirements as well as existing power supply agreements (PSAs), including their pricing mechanisms, pass-through provisions, capacity commitments and performance obligations.
It also emphasized the need for greater transparency in the pricing and procurement of fuel and other energy inputs and the continued promotion of renewable energy sources as part of efforts to bring down electricity costs.
The measure cited the mandate of the Energy Regulatory Commission to enforce applicable reliability, performance and maintenance standards, review the adequacy and implementation of PSAs and other power supply arrangements, and promote transparency and accountability in electricity pricing.
Under the proposed congressional inquiry, the Committee on Visayas Development is expected to look into various energy combination models and alternatives for stable power generation and distribution, with the objective of lowering the overall cost of electricity. | GPB
