As of Tuesday, April 30th, the Luzon and Visayas power grids were once again put on yellow alert.

Power outages are being reported throughout the country due to an insufficient supply of electricity in the nation's power grids. Coupled with the extreme heat, citizens are suffering en masse. The government urges the Filipino people to conserve electricity in an effort to prevent more power outages from happening.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael Lotilla, considers the issue as a crisis requiring immediate action, he said in a conference. The DOE speculates that the high temperatures lead to an unexpected rise in power consumption in the regions, with recent readings having surpassed the highest projected power requirement for this year.

"It remains a challenge, it is a calamity and we are responding to it," he says.

The outages are expected to persist until the middle of May, as power supplies remain volatile and uncertain due to the unprecedented increase in power consumption and many power plants being subjected to forced outages.

"In the next few weeks until the middle of May, we are going to have yellow alerts, and possibly red alerts in some areas. If none of our plants will go offline, then perhaps it is just a yellow alert," said DoE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara. 

A yellow alert is raised when the operating margin is insufficient to supply the grid's contingency requirement.

An advisory from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) warned the public about possible power outages in areas connected to the grid.

In Luzon, the peak demand for last Tuesday was forecasted to be 13,902 megawatts, while the available capacity is 14,950. Records prove that the actual consumption often surpasses the estimated values. Similarly, the Visayas region forecasts 2,881 megawatts for the peak consumption, while the capacity is 2,881 megawatts.

NGCP clarified why the grid's capacity has greatly diminished, noting that the nation is currently working on only a small fraction of its production capability.

“Four plants have been on forced outage since 2023, three between January and March 2024, and 13 since April 2024; while one other is running on a derated capacity, for a total of 1,369.3 MW unavailable to the grid," NGCP posted on the advisory.

It is also reported that one plant in Visayas has been on forced outage since 2022, two since 2023, two earlier this year, and 15 power plants presently on forced outage.

The DOE mentioned that many power plants are expected to operate starting this year, albeit passing the summer months.

"More than 4,000 megawatts will come online this 2024. 4,030 megawatts in Luzon, 80.25 megawatts in Visayas, and 52.5 megawatts are in Mindanao," Guevara added.

Lotilla said that we will have adequate supply for next year, and this crisis will unlikely be experienced again.

At present, Filipinos remain wary about the situation. Vulnerability to heat strokes and other complications induced by high temperatures is significantly increased when there is a power outage due to avenues of dissipating the heat becoming more limited. The forced outages of the power plants struck at a critical juncture, leading to an increased rate of afflictions and potential loss of life.