Visayas may experience power shortage in 2026

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December 12, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines —  The power outlook for Luzon and Mindanao next year appears to be brighter, but rising demand and tighter electricity supply in the Visayas are stirring growing concern.

Citing initial projections, an official of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) expects “no issues” in Luzon and Mindanao due to stable power supply.

“When it comes to the Visayas, we’re seeing a bit of an issue because it’s now becoming dependent primarily on Luzon and Mindanao (grids),” IEMOP vice president for trading operations Isidro Cacho Jr. told journalists yesterday.

Since the Visayas also relies on power coming from other regions, forced outages in power plants across Luzon and Mindanao can tighten supply and raise the risk of blackouts, Cacho said.

The country’s power grids have been unified following the full commercial operation of the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project last year, allowing power sharing across three regions.

“The Visayas is a net importer of power from Luzon and Mindanao. When interconnections from Mindanao and Luzon are limited, power plants end up setting higher prices for the Visayas,” Cacho said.

IEMOP is the operator of the country’s Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the centralized platform for power trading where prices are determined by supply and demand.

For the summer months of 2026, Cacho is seeing WESM prices in Luzon to range between P5 and P6 per kilowatt-hour, while those in Mindanao may settle from P4 to P5 per kWh.

In the Visayas, he said, spot prices could spike to as much as P7 per kWh.

“However, if there are additional unplanned outages, prices may increase further,” Cacho warned.

Last month, system-wide WESM rates dropped by 12.4 percent to P3.98 per kWh from P4.54 per kWh in October due to lower demand caused by cooler temperatures.

Overall supply rose to 19,998 megawatts from 19,889 MW on a monthly basis, while demand fell by 2.7 percent to 13,507 MW from 13,881 MW.