Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities
PRESS RELEASE

QUEZON CITY, May 20, 2026 –– The red and yellow alerts raised over the Luzon and Visayas grids over the past week highlight how outages from several large centralized coal plants can quickly strain the Philippine power system and result in power outages across interconnected grids, according to the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC).

No baseload power plant should be on outage from April to June, based on the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) Grid Operating and Maintenance Plan (GOMP). However, ICSC noted that these power plants were not only unavailable in the second quarter of 2026, but have already exceeded the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) annual outage allowance for baseload plants.

The outage days below refer to the cumulative or total number of days the plants were offline this year, while the dates indicate the latest instance the plants went offline:

  • TVI 1 (150MW), 90 total outage days; offline since May 3
  • TVI 2 (150MW), 91 total outage days; offline since March 24
  • PEDC 3 (150MW), 43 total outage days; offline since May 6

TVI 1, TVI 2, and PEDC 3 are still on forced outage today. These coal power plants account for 52.8% of the unavailable capacity in the Visayas grid, further underscoring how dependence on a small number of large centralized baseload facilities can quickly strain system reliability. Until these power plants are brought back online, the capacity deficit will persist, and the yellow grid alert raised in Visayas will likely remain. This shows how centralized coal plants impact the grid – that a single outage of these facilities can significantly strain the grid, leading to tight power supply situations.

The possibility of rotating outages carries real economic, health, and social consequences for consumers. Power interruptions disrupt critical functions across industries, communities, and government services, and recurring grid alerts and outages may prevent the influx of investments due to unreliable power supply. Unstable electricity increases operational risks, raises business costs, and weakens investor confidence in the country’s ability to provide a reliable power system. These repeated supply issues also highlight the risks of relying heavily on centralized power generation and congested transmission systems, where outages of a few large facilities can ripple across entire regions. 

ICSC emphasized that, in the near term, both consumers and government institutions should accelerate the adoption of rooftop solar and net-metering systems to strengthen local energy resilience and reduce dependence on single-point-dependent centralized power infrastructure. While they are not a direct substitute for large baseload plants, wider adoption of rooftop solar can help reduce peak daytime demand, improve local resilience, and lessen pressure on the grid during supply shortfalls. Even small-scale distributed energy systems can help ease pressure on the grid during peak demand while providing backup electricity during supply disruptions, particularly when paired with battery storage systems. 

Public facilities such as schools, municipal halls, evacuation centers, and health centers can also serve as critical resilience hubs during outages and extreme weather events.

The experiences of the municipalities of Guiuan, Eastern Samar and Paranas, Samar highlight why decentralized and distributed energy systems matter. As coastal municipalities highly exposed to typhoons, flooding, rising temperatures, sea level rise, and saltwater intrusion, Guiuan and Paranas have experienced both climate-related disruptions and energy insecurity. After the 6.9 magnitude Bogo City earthquake struck last September 2025, the entirety of the Leyte-Samar sub-grid experienced a prolonged blackout. 

As Guiuan and Paranas both had rooftop solar PV systems on their municipal hall buildings, they were able to provide basic social services such as phone charging and communications in their localities, demonstrating how localized energy systems can continue powering essential services even when major transmission lines or large power plants are offline.

“As the country faces growing energy security challenges, building resilience through distributed energy solutions is no longer just an environmental option, but an energy security necessity. A more decentralized and diversified approach strengthens local reliability and self-sufficiency while reducing the risk of supply disruptions caused by outages, disasters, and other physical shocks,” ICSC furthered.

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
Sanaf Marcelo, ICSC: media@icsc.ngo, +63 968 886 3466, +63 917 149 5649
Pauline Alvarez, ICSC: media@icsc.ngo, +63 999 338 9414

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