Visayas Power Woes: Think Tank Points Finger at DOE Accountability

MANILA, Philippines — Who should ultimately be held accountable for the recurring grid alerts and power outages in the Visayas? For Iloilo-based think tank Institute of Contemporary Economics (ICE), accountability rests with the Department of Energy (DOE), the very agency mandated to annually update the country’s Power Development Plan. “The power system has many actors, but it still requires a lead institution responsible for whether the whole chain produces a reliable outcome. That lead institution is DOE,” ICE said in its latest report on the region’s recurring grid alerts. The strain on the Visayas power system has been felt across the region, including Iloilo City, where outages affected consumers served by Primelectric Holdings. While Primelectric’s modernization efforts may have helped cushion the fallout from repeated outages, ICE stressed that a resilient local network alone is “not sufficient” to address challenges rooted across the entire power chain. “Modernizing the local distribution network reduces local failures, improves response and strengthens the last mile, but it cannot substitute for generation reserves, transmission deliverability or system-wide planning,” it said. Reliable electricity, the think tank noted, can only be achieved when the “full chain performs.” And that is where DOE’s role becomes critical, as it is the institution legally positioned under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to align the entire sector. “When recurring MLD (manual load dropping) shows that generation availability, reserves, transmission deliverability and distribution implementation are not producing reliable service, the accountability question begins with the DOE,” ICE said. Since May, consumers across the Visayas have faced recurring grid alerts due to high electricity demand and the continued shutdown of several power plants. The prolonged supply strain has forced the implementation of MLD or rotational brownouts to manage pressure on the system. Between June 2 and June 19, the ICE report found that seven power interruptions were not “ordinary local outages” but grid-security events. Beyond households, the problem also carries economic risks. In Iloilo alone, each recurring MLD is estimated to place roughly P12.7 million in economic output at risk. “A modern power system is not one that merely restores service after interruption. It is one built with enough redundancy, automation, reserve capacity and coordination to prevent avoidable curtailment,” the report said. Since taking over power distribution operations in Iloilo City in 2020, Primelectric has invested P2.65 billion in grid modernization.