CEBU CITY — Cebu’s worsening power shortage is rapidly turning from an electricity problem into an economic threat, with business leaders warning that recurring rotational brownouts could raise operating costs, disrupt factories and supply chains, discourage new investment and ultimately put jobs and growth at risk.
The pressure intensified again on Friday, September 4, as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines placed the Visayas grid under red alert from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., with only 2,233 megawatts of available capacity against projected peak demand of 2,504 MW.
NGCP said 815.8 MW of capacity was unavailable because of forced outages and generating plants operating below their rated capacity.
The latest warning came just a day after an even wider supply deficit jolted Cebu.
On September 3, available Visayas capacity fell to 2,187 MW against demand of 2,575 MW — a shortfall of 388 MW. Rotational outages in parts of Metro Cebu consequently stretched from around one hour to as long as 2.5 hours.
For Cebu’s business community, the numbers are increasingly difficult to dismiss.
Brownouts move from inconvenience to business risk
The Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry has warned that repeated outages threaten factory operations, reduce productivity, increase operating expenses and weaken Cebu companies’ competitiveness.
That concern carries particular weight in Mandaue, one of the country’s major manufacturing and industrial centers.
Businesses that cannot afford to stop operating may be forced to run generators, install battery systems or invest in solar and other backup power sources. Smaller companies that cannot absorb those costs face a harder choice: suspend operations during outages or pass some of the added expense to consumers.
The impact is already being felt beyond factories.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported in August that Cebu-based remote workers were spending additional money on coworking spaces, solar installations and backup equipment simply to remain productive during prolonged interruptions.
Those costs may appear small individually, but multiplied across households, business-process outsourcing workers, restaurants, retailers, manufacturers and thousands of micro and small businesses, unreliable electricity can become a serious drag on economic activity.
Cebu is trying to grow while its power buffer shrinks
The timing is especially sensitive.
Cebu remains one of the Philippines’ biggest economic centers outside Metro Manila and has been trying to attract more manufacturing, tourism, property and technology investment.
But Central Visayas has already experienced an economic slowdown. Philippine Statistics Authority data show the region grew by only 3.7 percent in 2025, down sharply from about 7.4 percent in 2024. Its economy was valued at roughly P1.32 trillion in 2025.
That does not mean brownouts caused the slowdown — the present electricity crisis developed later and several economic factors affected the region.
It does mean, however, that prolonged power instability is arriving at a time when Cebu can ill afford another obstacle to investment and expansion.
Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro has acknowledged the stakes, saying the province wants more investors, expanding industries, businesses and jobs but cannot sustain those ambitions unless electricity supply keeps pace with economic growth.
Why does Cebu keep losing power?
The immediate problem is not simply a shortage inside Visayan Electric’s distribution system.
NGCP and Visayan Electric have repeatedly pointed to insufficient generation across the broader Visayas grid, aggravated by forced and extended outages at major power plants and reduced or unavailable electricity imports from Mindanao.
Among the facilities cited in the latest supply crunch are Therma Visayas Inc. Unit 1 and Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3.
The vulnerability has been building for months.
Yellow and red alerts have repeatedly hit the Visayas since May. By August, the region was experiencing repeated days of tight supply as multiple generators went offline or operated below capacity.
On August 24 alone, available capacity stood at 2,318 MW against projected peak demand of 2,431 MW, while 919 MW was unavailable because of plant outages and derated generation.
NGCP had earlier said it hoped conditions could normalize by the end of August if major generating plants returned and no additional units unexpectedly failed.
That hoped-for stabilization did not materialize.
Cebu turns to emergency measures
With power interruptions continuing, Baricuatro convened an emergency meeting on September 4 with representatives from the Department of Energy, NGCP, Visayan Electric and Cebu’s electric cooperatives.
Provincial officials asked the DOE to accelerate energy projects and improve oversight of prolonged generating-plant outages. Baricuatro has also scheduled a Cebu Energy Summit for October 7, bringing together government, business, investors and the power sector to discuss short- and long-term solutions.
One proposal being revisited involves Cebu’s Alegria oil and gas field. Provincial officials are seeking updates on plans that could potentially use natural gas from the site for electricity generation.
At the demand side, Cebu has also relied on the Interruptible Load Program, under which large electricity users voluntarily shift to their own generators during critical periods so that limited grid supply can be redirected to other consumers.
InsiderPH reported that at least 14 establishments, mostly malls, were participating during the latest shortage, while some large industrial users were also reducing grid consumption.
But demand management can only buy time.
Cebu eventually needs additional dependable generation, stronger grid infrastructure and enough reserve capacity to absorb unexpected power-plant failures without pushing consumers into recurring brownouts.
The coal question returns
The crisis has also reopened one of the Philippines’ most politically and environmentally sensitive energy debates.
The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has raised the possibility of reviewing the government’s moratorium on new greenfield coal-fired power projects, arguing that Cebu requires dependable electricity while renewable and cleaner-energy capacity is still being developed.
The chamber said any reconsideration should be temporary rather than a retreat from the country’s clean-energy transition.
The Department of Energy, however, has taken a different position.
In May, the DOE explicitly reaffirmed that the coal moratorium remains in force and said it saw no compelling reason to lift it. The department argued that approved projects already in the pipeline, combined with accelerated renewable-energy development, should provide sufficient capacity.
The policy does contain limited exceptions, including certain previously advanced projects and projects considered necessary to avert an imminent power-supply crisis.
That disagreement could become one of the biggest policy battles emerging from Cebu’s electricity shortage.
The bigger danger is investor confidence
Brownouts lasting an hour or two can be measured.
Lost investor confidence is much harder to calculate.
For a manufacturer deciding where to build its next factory, a BPO company choosing where to expand or a foreign investor comparing Cebu with competing locations elsewhere in Southeast Asia, reliable electricity is basic infrastructure — not an optional advantage.
A company can budget for wages, rent and taxes.
It is much harder to budget for a power system that may repeatedly force factories onto generators, interrupt digital operations or shut production lines without certainty over when conditions will normalize.
That is why Cebu’s present power crisis goes far beyond lights switching off in homes.
If the Visayas grid continues operating with thin reserves and repeated generating-plant failures, Cebu risks paying for the shortage not only through higher electricity-related costs today, but through investments, expansion plans and jobs that may quietly go somewhere else tomorrow.
And for one of the Philippines’ most important regional economies, that could prove far more expensive than the brownouts themselves.
WWC ONE MEDIA J.M.D
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