• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Despite the energization of the Cebu-Negros-Panay sub-grids that was supposed to address power supply problems in the two regions, Visayas may still experience power shortages during summer next year, due to increasing power demand.
While DOE sees that 2025 summer will be much better than this year, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevarra disclosed on Wednesday that Visayas may still experience yellow and red alerts.
Guevarra said Visayas may experience potential congestion as the transmission development projects cannot keep up with the generation demand.
In a briefing with media participants from Visayas and Mindanao regions during the Energy Power 102 workshop at the Hotel Seda in Taguig City, Guevarra reported that there will be an 18 percent growth in the power generation supply, noting that the country will have another 4,000 megawatts of power, of which, 2,000 MW will come from renewable energy.
A yellow alert is issued when the contingency reserve is less than the capacity of the largest synchronized generating unit of the grid, while a red alert is issued when the contingency reserve is zero, which may lead to manual load dropping or rotating power interruptions.
In the summer of this year, the islands of Panay and Negros suffered power outages, causing losses to the economy of both regions reported at hundreds of millions of pesos.
On April this year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. led the ceremonial energization of the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) 230-kV Backbone Project in Bacolod City.
The P67.9 billion CNP 230-kV Backbone Project, composed of CNP1, CNP2, CNP3 and Negros-Panay Interconnection Project Line 2 (NPIP L2), is intended to strengthen the grid and improve the reliability of power transmission in the islands of Cebu, Negros and Panay. It involves the construction of a high-voltage transmission line and associated substations to connect the islands of Cebu, Negros, and Panay.
The project will allow the increased transfer capacity among Cebu, Negros, and Panay islands and the dispatch of excess capacities from Mindanao to meet the demand in the Visayas grid, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.*
