A power outage hit provinces in Panay Island on Tuesday due to disturbances in the Panay grid.

In a statement, the Department of Energy said the power disturbance affected the entire Western Visayas Tuesday noon after the Unit 1 of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) coal-fired power plant tripped due to boiler feed pump issue.

Unit 1 of Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) and Unit 2 of PEDC then simultaneously tripped due to grid voltage imbalance.

"Other power plants within the Visayas grid were also affected by the Panay grid disturbances," DOE also said, adding that a total of six power plants tripped in the region.

As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, DOE said 198.1 megawatts (MW) is being served by Panay power plants and augmented by 50.9 MW from other sources in the Visayas, for a total of 245 MW served load.

Watch more News on iWantTFC

The grid needs about 300 MW to stabilize and is awaiting PCPC, which can supply 135 MW, to synchronize back to the grid.

The National Power Grid Corporation of the Philippines, for its part, said load restoration will be done conservatively to prevent voltage failure.

"To enhance communication and keep consumers better informed during this situation, we have requested the NGCP to increase the frequency of updates provided to the public," the Energy Regulatory Commission said.

Meanwhile, Aklan Governor Jose Enrique Miraflores said rotational brownouts are being implemented in the province. He also said hospitals and tourism-related businesses, especially in Boracay Island, are being prioritized in the allocation of power supply.

"So ‘yung ginagawa dito ng local company ay rotational ang pag-energize ng mga municipalities. At we are prioritizing Boracay as well as the capital town of Kalibo kasi nandito ‘yung mga main business at hospitals na kailangan talagang masuplayan ng kuryente," he told Teleradyo Serbisyo.

Miraflores said around 48 percent of the power supply in Aklan has been restored, and they are hoping that it will be at 100 percent in the following days.

DOE noted that a similar system disturbance also occurred in the Panay and Negros sub-grids in April 2023.

The Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) Project is also expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2024, which is expected to "further improve grid reliability in Panay and Negros."