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 can quickly reduce available reserves and affect grid stability. 

The Excellent Energy Resources, Inc. (EERI) 1, 2, and 3 Plants (which have a combined capacity of 1,262 MW) and Ilijan Block A and B Plants (which have a combined capacity of 1,200 MW) are both liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants utilizing the same LNG terminal. On April 16, at around 3:00PM, these plants experienced unplanned outages simultaneously. While their outages only spanned a few hours and have since been resolved, they still highlight the vulnerability of the energy system overly reliant on a few large facilities.

In addition, while multiple plants were cited to have been operating at derated capacity, the biggest contributors to the supply issues are Sual 1 (235 MW available out of 647 MW) and Sual 2 (300 MW available out of 647 MW) – both running at less than half of their dependable capacity at the time and have further reduced effective supply during that time.

According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), these unplanned outages and derations resulted in the loss of 5,137 MW of baseload capacity in the Luzon grid yesterday. Moreover, while it was pointed out that the unavailability of hydropower plants, such as Magat 1, 2, 3, and 4 (345 MW), contributed to the yellow alert, it should be noted that these were scheduled maintenance operations under the NGCP’s Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP). 

In this year’s Philippine Power Outlook Report, ICSC cautioned that the Visayas grid is vulnerable to grid alerts due to its reliance on high-voltage direct current imports from Luzon and Mindanao. This is exactly what happened on April 16. The Visayas grid, already operating on net negative reserves, felt the ripple effect of outages and derations in Luzon—its primary source of imported power.

The Philippine Power Outlook Report also warned that unplanned outages beyond the Department of Energy’s (DOE) approved schedule could significantly worsen the situation. This scenario likewise unfolded on April 16, when additional unexpected outages, such as those affecting both EERI and Ilijan LNG facilities, tightened supply conditions and triggered yellow alerts across Luzon and Visayas.

A significant portion of the unavailable capacity during the alert came from LNG-fired power plants, including the EERI and Ilijan facilities, and not just from the scheduled maintenance of the Magat Hydropower Plant. This underscores how closely overall system conditions are tied to the performance and location of major generating units. While these plants contribute to meeting demand, the situation highlights the importance of ensuring that new capacity is planned and distributed in a way that strengthens system resilience and minimizes the impact of localized disruptions.

To break the cycle of grid alerts, the Philippines must move towards a more decentralized, diversified, and flexible power system, where the outage of a single facility does not put the entire grid at risk.

Expanding the share of indigenous renewable energy — such as geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind, supported by energy storage systems — will be central to this transition. Renewables strengthen energy security, improve system resilience, and reduce exposure to volatile global fuel markets. Heavy reliance on imported LNG continues to tie domestic electricity prices to global fuel price shocks and geopolitical disruptions, unlike indigenous RE sources that have no fuel costs and help moderate electricity prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

With the country’s archipelagic geography and exposure to extreme weather, power generation must also be geographically distributed. A more decentralized system allows communities to reduce reliance on a few large plants –– improving local reliability, self-sufficiency, and reducing the risk of power supply disruptions brought by outages, disasters, or other physical shocks.

At the same time, grid reliability will depend on flexibility rather than additional baseload capacity alone. This requires technologies that can quickly respond to fluctuations in supply and demand and recover from disruptions, including energy storage systems, modern grid management, and fast-ramping capacity.

A system built on diversified, distributed and flexible resources minimizes single points of failure, and it provides a more stable foundation for affordable, reliable, and secure electricity for all Filipinos.

ABOUT
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities is a Philippine-based non-governmental organization that advances climate, energy, and low-carbon solutions to enable fair and climate-resilient development at the national and international levels.

CONTACT
Sanafe Marcelo, ICSC: media@icsc.ngo, +63968 886 3466, +63917 149 5649

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PHOTO BY: irfanmnur, via Envato Elements