Pedestrians shield themselves from the sun while passing through the Commonwealth Market in Quezon City on April 12, 2024. State weather bureau PAGASA has warned of the possibility of dangerously high heat index levels as El Nino continues to affect the Philippines. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN NewsMANILA (UPDATE 2) -- The Luzon and Visayas grids were placed on yellow and red alerts again on Friday, April 26 as power reserves remained thin.

In a statement, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Luzon grid was on yellow alert from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The Visayas grid, meanwhile, was put on red alert from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on yellow alert from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"The red alert in Visayas grid is also due to increased demand and decrease in power exported from Luzon," the NGCP said.

Four plants in Luzon have been on forced outage since 2023, while 4 were out between January and March 2024, the power grid operator said.

Fourteen have been down since April 2024, while two are running on derated capacity, which means 1,512.7 megawatts of power are unavailable to Filipinos.

In Visayas, one plant has been on forced outage since 2022, while another 2 have been down since 2023.

Another 2 went down between January and March 2024, and 14 more were out since April 2024. An additional 8 are running on derated capacities, making 604.1 megawatts unavailable to the public.

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

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