THE summer of 2025 should see fewer power disruptions and supply alerts and with additional capacity set to go online this year, a senior Energy Department official said.
Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevera told reporters on Wednesday that red and yellow alerts would not be as frequent for Luzon and Mindanao, but cautioned that Visayas could still experience supply shortages because of higher demand.
“2024 was a special year because of El Niño,” she said.
Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevera
“But fortunately for this year, we have 4,000 megawatts (MW) of incoming power, 2,000 MW of fossil fuel, and 2,000 MW of renewable energy,” Guevara added.
“Next year, there are several projects that are coming in as well,” she continued.
“So for the summer season, we can see that 2025 will be much, much better than 2024, but we must pay special attention to the Visayas.”
Demand there will increase due to economic activities, Guevara explained, but transmission will continue to be challenged because of geography.
She noted that in Bohol, for example, demand ballooned to 130 megawatts (MW) in May from the normal load of around 90 MW due to tourism.
Other areas where supply is sufficient, meanwhile, could see congestion due to the lack of transmission facilities.
“So to summarize, Luzon will have an all right power supply for summer 2025, but for Visayas, they will still continue to experience shortages,” Guevara said.
“Mindanao, on the other hand, will almost have no problems because their demand is usually just two-thirds of their supply,” she added.
From mid-April to late June, Luzon experienced 11 red alerts — a situation where power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand — and 31 yellow alerts, which is when supply is not enough to meet contingencies.
It also experienced four confirmed power interruptions based on Energy Department data.
During the same period, the Visayas, the area had eight red alerts, 26 yellow alerts and no power interruptions.
Mindanao had no red alerts, two yellow alerts, and no power interruptions.
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