Rotational brownouts warning up in select Metro Cebu areas

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Portions of Cebu City, Talisay City and Minglanilla could face rotational power interruptions on Wednesday, July 1, if the Visayas grid’s power reserve runs out, power distributors warned.

The Visayas grid is currently under Yellow Alert, meaning power supply is sufficient but reserves are limited.

If conditions worsen to a Red Alert, when demand outstrips available supply, rotational brownouts may be implemented to preserve grid stability, Visayan Electric announced.

READ: Visayas grid enters 7th straight week of Yellow Alerts

Should a Red Alert be declared, outages would be staggered across three one-hour windows between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., according to the advisory.

Areas affected

Between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., outages would hit parts of Cebu City, including Barangays Camputhaw, Capitol Site, Guadalupe, Kalubihan, Kalunasan and Lahug.

READ: DOE summons 20 Visayas power generators over supply concerns

From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., affected areas would expand to parts of Minglanilla, covering Cadulawan, Calajo-an, Camp 7, Camp 8, Cuanos, Linao, Lipata, Manduang, Pakigne, Tubod, Tunghaan and Vito, as well as parts of Talisay City, including Lawaan I, Lawaan II, Lawaan III, and Wards 1, 3 and 4.

The final window, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., would affect parts of Cebu City’s Banilad and Talamban areas, along with Cabancalan in Mandaue City.

In an advisory, Visayan Electric emphasized that the outage schedule is contingent on the alert level actually escalating to Red and is not yet in effect.

They said the affected zones and timing could still change depending on real-time grid conditions and directives from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, which manages the country’s power transmission system.

Rotational brownouts, also known as load shedding, are used by grid operators as a last resort to prevent a wider system collapse when electricity demand exceeds what power plants can supply.

They typically affect designated areas on a rotating basis rather than a single, prolonged blackout.

With at least 20 plants under forced outages, and high power demand brought by hot and humid weather, the Visayas grid has been under strain for more than a month already.

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