ICSC: Rotating blackouts underscore hidden risks of centralized energy infrastructure
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities REACTIVE QUEZON CITY, May 14 2026 –– The latest rotating blackouts across Luzon and Visayas underscore the systemic risks created by concentrating generation and transmission infrastructure in a limited number of large facilities and critical corridors. From the forecasted available capacity in Luzon of 16,975 MW reported by the NGCP earlier in the day, system availability dropped to 12,447 MW, reflecting how concentration of critical assets can lead to an immediate tightening of power supply conditions. The cascading tripping on May 13 of 500 kV Dasmariñas-Ilijan transmission line at 4:48AM and 500 kV [...]
ICSC: Luzon and Visayas grid alerts underscore the strong need for a more resilient, distributed power system
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities REACTIVE QUEZON CITY, 17 April 2026 –– The yellow alerts raised over the Luzon and Visayas grids yesterday highlight a recurring vulnerability in the Philippines’ power system: the country’s energy sector remains baseload-centric and relies on large power plants, making the grid more exposed to disruptions that affect Filipino households and businesses across the country. The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) has constantly emphasized that relying heavily on only a few large power plants makes the energy system less flexible and unreliable. Even short-term outages or plants operating below normal capacity [...]
ICSC on PHL energy emergency: Resilience must be a long-term anchor, empower LGUs to advance solutions
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities REACTIVE QUEZON CITY, 25 March 2026 – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Executive Order (EO) No. 110 yesterday, declaring a state of national energy emergency as impacts of the US-Israel war on Iran threaten the availability and stability of the country’s energy supply. EO 110 adopts the Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport (UPLIFT), the Philippine government’s coordinated response framework. Its implementation will be under the oversight of the UPLIFT Committee, which will be chaired by the President and joined by the Executive Secretary and the Secretaries of the Department of [...]
ICSC: Visayas grid alert spotlights persistent issues in the Philippine power sector
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities [REACTIVE] ICSC: Visayas grid alert spotlights persistent issues in the Philippine power sector QUEZON CITY, 21 January 2026 –– In response to the yellow alert raised over the Visayas grid yesterday, the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) highlights a persistent and highly alarming issue in the Philippine power sector: the occurrence of supply shortages even during periods of low electricity demand. Despite being in the cool season, when demand is typically lower, the Visayas grid continues to experience reliability problems driven largely by unplanned outages among baseload power plants, particularly coal-fired [...]