New CEED report confirms coal plants caused Visayas energy crisis; Cebu economic loss may reach Php 111 million per hour without power

The forced outage of coal power plants caused the Visayas energy crisis, according to a new report by energy think tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED).

According to the report, the unplanned outage of coal generation facilities in Visayas contributed to the thin power supply in the region, forcing distribution utilities to implement rotating brownouts and to procure expensive electricity from the spot market. The report specifically finds: 

• Forced outage of coal plants caused Visayas energy crisis. Coal represented 5,492.3 MW of aggregated lost power capacity in Visayas due to plant outages from January to June 2026.
• At least three coal power plant units violated outage regulations. Three coal plant units – Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI – AboitizPower) Units 1 and 2, Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC – Meralco PowerGen) Unit 3 – exceed allowable outage days under already loose ERC rules.
• The forced outage period of five coal power plant units  in Visayas intermittently overlapped. Units 1 and 2 of KEPCO-SPC coal plant, along with the previously mentioned three power plant units, had overlaps during their outage periods. This resulted in a significant reduction in Visayas power supply.
• Coal plants, some coming from the same parent company of plants on forced outage, supplied more in the spot market even as one of its coal plants mainly caused the Visayas energy crisis. Coal plants were among top suppliers to the spot market when TVI, PEDC, and KEPCO SPC were on forced outage. Two coal plants (GNPower Dinginin, Pagbilao CFPP) owned by AboitizPower became among top suppliers (30.21% and 30.15%) of total outage days respectively while their sister plant, TVI, had both of its units on forced outage. When demand increased after power supply to the Visayas grid thinned, rates spike as shown in August 2026 when WESM prices per kilowatt-hour reached all-time highs in Visayas and Mindanao at Php 18.59 and Php 19.56 respectively in the middle of daily rotating brownouts.

The report estimates that every hour of rotating brownouts caused by the forced outage of TVI U1, TVI U2, and PEDC U3  costs Cebu alone may reach Php 110,827,033.54 in economic losses. Metro Cebu, a major economic hub in the region, experienced two hours of rotational brownouts as late as September 2026, as the heat waves caused by the Super El Niño were beginning to intensify.

As previous CEED research has shown, 51.23% of incidences of forced outages from 2019-2023 can be attributed to coal plants. Even during the 2024  summer season’s series of red and yellow alerts, coal plants already caused rotating brownouts.

“This report is further proof of the unreliability of coal plants and possibility of market abuse in our power sector. Consumers, in particular, have borne the brunt of the Visayas energy crisis. We remain in a critical juncture as rotating brownouts remain a possibility in the next few years. As long as power giants continue to inflate their profit margins with impunity, double down on their obsession with fossil fuels like coal, and persist on delaying the transition to renewable energy, rotating brownouts may remain a feature of our future,” said Gerry Arances, CEED Executive Director.