DOE cracks down on plants behind 21 grid alerts in May
The Department of Energy (DOE) is drawing up a list of underperforming and offline power plants following a spate of grid alerts that hit Luzon and Visayas in May.
In a briefing on Monday, June 1, DOE Undersecretary Mario Marasigan noted that since May 12, the country has experienced four red alerts and 17 yellow alerts, the majority of which were in Visayas region.
Visayas grid remains on thin reserve power supply on Monday, as a yellow alert has also been scheduled by National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) due to four major power plant outages and projected high system demand. This alert will last until 9 p.m.
According to Marasigan, Therma Visayas units 1 and 2, with 169 megawatts (MW) each, are expected to come online on Aug. 22 and 30, respectively, while the 100-MW KEPCO SPC power plant is set to return to normal operations by Tuesday, June 2.
Apart from this, the DOE said that Masinloc unit 2, Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (EERI) unit 1, and Ilijan block A are either back online or are set to generate power sometime this week. Pagbilao unit 2 is expected to come online by Wednesday, June 3.
“There are many generation companies that are offline. This is exactly why the DOE has issued a circular on generation companies’ accountability,” said Energy Secretary Sharon Garin.
The DOE is currently finalizing the list of functioning power plants, as well as generators operating at derated capacities and those that remain offline. Non-compliance on the part of generation companies may result in government penalties or the revocation of their certificates of endorsement.
Based on NGCP data, 11 power plants in Visayas have been on forced outage since May, one plant since March, three plants since 2025, two plants since 2024 and 2023, and one plant since 2021.
Currently, about 958.25 MW are unavailable to the grid.