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Sunday, May 17, 2026 Vol. 21 No. 215
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 12 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
LATEST OUTAGES: T
By Lenie Lectura
HE latest rotating blackouts across Luzon and Visayas, which sparked an investigation by the energy regulators amid alarm from business groups, underscore the systemic risks created by concentrating generation and transmission infrastructure in a limited number of large facilities and critical corridors, according to the nongovernment Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC). “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,” it noted. The cascading tripping on May 13 of 500 kV Dasmariñas-Ilijan transmission line at 4:48am and 500 kV Tayabas-Ilijan transmission line at 6:39am had triggered the disconnection of nearly 2,500 MW of capacity, including the Ilijan 1 and 2 plants (1,200 MW) and EERI Units 1, 2, and 3 (1,262.1 MW), both of which are LNG facilities. Even though the transmission lines were restored online later that same day, the disconnected power plants were not able to immediately resume generation, prolonging the supply shortfall and triggering the rotating blackouts, ICSC pointed out. As of late Thursday, these plants had yet to be re-commissioned and returned to service. “Until they are brought back online, the capacity deficit will persist, and further grid alerts remain
likely,” said the Philippine-based NGO that advances climate, energy, and low-carbon solutions to enable fair and climate-resilient development at the national and international levels. On Friday, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) again placed the Luzon and Visayas grids under red and yellow alert. Just a month ago, on April 16, the same power plants that were disconnected last week also experienced simultaneous forced shutdowns due to issues involving the LNG terminal supplying their feedstock requirements. “Both incidents highlight the vulnerability of an energy system heavily reliant on centralized infrastructure. Whether through a shared LNG terminal or a critical transmission corridor, disruptions in these critical nodes can quickly cascade into broader system-wide supply shortages and grid instability,” said the ICSC. It stressed that last week’s events show that the available electricity supply can drop significantly when more than one major pow-
THE CASE VS CENTRALIZED ENERGY INFRA
(TOP) The Ilijan liquefied natural gas facility stands along the coastal stretch of Ilijan, Batangas, with Verde Island visible across the Verde Island Passage in the distance, August 11, 2023. As one of Luzon’s major power-generation assets, the plant plays a critical role in supplying baseload electricity to the grid and has featured in recent discussions on energy security and supply reliability. (Above) An LNG tanker is docked at the Ilijan power plant in Ilijan, Batangas, August 8, 2023. AP/AARON FAVILA “Both incidents [the cascading tripping of the 500 kV Dasmariñas–Ilijan and Tayabas–Ilijan transmission lines on May 13, and the resulting disconnection of major LNG-linked generating plants, including Ilijan Units 1 and 2 and EERI Units 1–3] highlight the vulnerability of an energy system heavily reliant on centralized infrastructure.”—ICSC, on the concerns that dependence on large, interconnected energy nodes such as major transmission corridors and LNG facilities can amplify cascading failures, turning localized disruptions into broader grid-wide supply instability.
er plant or key facility goes offline at the same time. This, it warned, raises an important consideration: as the power system continues to rely on large centralized infrastructure—such as LNG facilities—the level of reserves or backup needed to maintain reliability may need to increase, with possible implications on electricity costs. “Reserves today are sized based on the largest power plant connected to the grid. But if a single shared facility, such as an LNG terminal or critical transmission corridor, can affect multiple plants at once, then that shared infrastructure should arguably become the benchmark for reserve requirements,” said ICSC Chief Data Scientist Engr. Jephraim Manansala. In addition to issues encountered in the transmission facilities, forced outages of coal-fired plants have further exacerbated supply tightness. Among those reported were the forced outage of Masinloc Unit 3 (335MW), which tripped at 6:35am of the same day, and Mariveles Power Generation Corporation Unit 4 (150MW), which had already been on forced outage since May 10, adding to the overall capacity deficit. Based on the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program (GOMP), no plant should be on outage during the second quarter of the year. Yet, ICSC lamented, “these unplanned outages persisted, exposing the gap between scheduled maintenance assumptions and real-world plant reliability.” It strongly suggested moving the country toward a “more decentralized, diversified, and flexible power system, where the outage of no single facility can put the entire grid at risk.” This is the only way to break the cycle of grid alerts and rotating blackouts, it stressed. “Decentralized and diversified — given the country’s archipelagic Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 61.4920 n JAPAN 0.3884 n UK 82.4423 n HK 7.8510 n CHINA 9.0592 n SINGAPORE 48.2025 n AUSTRALIA 44.3972 n EU 71.7735 n KOREA 0.0412 n SAUDI ARABIA 16.3869 Source: BSP (May 15, 2026)