The Philippine government's planned deployment of 253 MW of battery storage could eliminate more than half of the power alerts on the Visayas grid, providing a critical buffer as prolonged plant outages continue to strain electricity supply, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said on September 7.

Garin said the Department of Energy (DOE) is working with power companies to deploy battery energy storage systems across Cebu, Panay, Leyte and Negros, with some facilities already prepared to support the grid.

Based on simulations, more than half of the alerts would disappear once the full capacity comes online, with red alerts potentially avoided if batteries consistently operate.

The Visayas grid has already logged 96 yellow alerts and 33 red alerts from January-September, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

On September 7 alone, the grid was placed under red alert from 1-8 p.m., with available capacity at 2.28 GW against peak demand of 2.47 GW.

The grid operator attributed the latest alerts to the unavailability of major coal plants TVI Unit 1 and PEDC Unit 3, the derated capacity of THVI Unit 2 due to a main steam problem, and limited imports from Mindanao. About 919 MW of capacity was unavailable, with some units out since 2021.

The DOE is also accelerating the return of offline plants. CEDC Unit 1 returned on September 5, while Therma Visayas Unit 1 is scheduled to return by September 15 and PEDC Unit 3 by October 3. Three Mindanao units totaling 403 MW are targeted to return between September 8-20, which could restore the region's ability to send more power to the Visayas.