At least two baseload generating units with total capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) may not be able to add power supply during the summer months, contrary to what the Department of Energy (DOE) had earlier factored in on its power supply-demand outlook. Based on current report to the relevant industry stakeholders, the two blocks of the new Mariveles coal-fired power plant of the San Miguel group – with 150MW capacity each – will already have their commercial operations moved to August and September; instead of the original plan for them to go on-line between March and April 2023. The two generating units had been depended upon by the DOE as part of the capacity additions that will help shore up supply when demand would peak within the summer stretch. But that may no longer be the case as the new timeframes for the facilities to get on stream will already be beyond the critical summer months. As culled from the report, the deferment of the plant’s commercial commissioning had been due to “expected delay of the target plant commercial operation due to required completion of the Balsik-San Jose 500kV (kilovolt) transmission line of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.” The last time the DOE had publicly presented its power supply-demand outlook was early part of February wherein it indicated that Luzon will likely experience occurrences of 12 “yellow alerts” or insufficiency of power reserves that will strain the grid from March to November this year. As summer months will already be felt in the days ahead, the energy department has not given any new outlook - especially with the delayed commercial operations of Mariveles 1 and 2 generating units. The Mariveles coal plant has four units – and the next 3 and 4 blocks are already anticipated to be set on commercial stream by January and May 2024, respectively; instead of unit 3 coming on line by December this year. Apart from the coal plants, the energy department also forecasted the entry of capacities from renewable energy (RE) projects, primarily those that will be coming from solar farm facilities when it comes to reinforcing electricity supply when the weather temperatures will start rising. With the delayed operations of some plants, however, industry stakeholders are unsure of the remedial measures that will be pushed by the DOE to plug that gap; and no wide-ranging consultation had been done lately given the busy schedules of the energy officials for overseas travels in the cooler parts of the world to ironically explore long-term solutions to a serious and very urgent energy crisis predicament of the Philippines. Both the DOE and system operator NGCP warned of ‘tight supply’ during the summer months; and while there was no forecast of ‘red alert’ (extreme insufficiency of power reserves or even rotational brownouts), it had been indicated that such scenario may not be avoided if the simultaneous forced outages of power plants will recur. Apart from fears of unwarranted blackouts, consumers have been alerted on incessant rise in electric bills during the scorching months of March to July this year.