House probe sought over Visayas power woes

BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines — Rotational brownouts lasting as long as nine hours in parts of the Visayas have prompted a move to seek a congressional investigation into the region’s worsening power supply crisis.

Deputy House Speaker and Bacolod Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the prolonged outages were causing economic losses, disrupting schools, putting medical patients at risk and undermining investor confidence.

“Frequent rotational brownouts in the Visayas region have increased from around one hour to five to nine hours,” Benitez said in a resolution seeking an investigation by the House Committee on Visayas Development.

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The inquiry aims to determine accountability among stakeholders and ensure a stable and reliable power supply in the region.

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READ: Visayas grid under red alert as demand exceeds capacity

Benitez said the chronic outages could violate consumer protections under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) and the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers.

As of Sept. 3, the Visayas grid had recorded 93 yellow alerts and 30 red alerts since the start of the year, he said. On Sept. 4, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) issued another yellow and red alert due to severe supply shortages.

An NGCP report identified Cebu as the grid’s weak link, citing a simulated evening peak shortfall of 422 megawatts (MW). Peak demand reached 1,077 MW against dependable capacity of only 655 MW, forcing load shedding and requiring power transfers from Panay, Negros, Leyte-Samar and Bohol, Benitez said.

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The report also showed that 12 power plants in the region suffered forced outages in September alone. Another 17 generating units had remained offline for extended periods, including three since 2025, two since 2024, two since 2023 and one since 2021.

With 16 other plants operating at reduced capacity, a total of 972.6 MW had become unavailable to the grid, he said.

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Benitez cited the unavailability of major coal plants, including Toledo Power Inc. Unit 1 and Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3; tripping incidents along the Leyte-A (Maha) transmission lines and at Cebu Energy Development Corp. Unit 1; outages at Panay Diesel Power Plant Units 3-E and 3-H and Central Negros Power Reliability Inc. Unit 2; and limited power imports from Mindanao.

He questioned whether generation companies and grid operators were complying with maintenance standards, rehabilitation obligations and license requirements, given that the outages had persisted for years.

Benitez urged the Energy Regulatory Commission to strictly enforce performance standards, review power supply agreements and promote greater transparency in electricity pricing and fuel procurement.

The proposed inquiry will also examine energy mix options that could help lower electricity costs.

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Benitez asked the committee to invite officials from the NGCP, Department of Energy, ERC, power generation companies, electric cooperatives, distribution utilities, and other affected stakeholders to explain their immediate measures to address the power shortages. /cb