The Mindanao grid in particular has reached the limits of its capacity in recent years, and the other two grids are close to reaching theirs. The roughly 22 million residents of Mindanao, the country’s second largest island, have been forced to endure regular rolling blackouts, which the government says will continue until at least 2015 as it scrambles to add more capacity.
In Manila – which is on the Luzon grid – the local power distributor, Meralco, has been attempting to raise electricity prices, sparking a series of protests. Last December the company said it needed to hike prices because routine maintenance on the line supplying gas from an offshore gas field had forced power stations to switch temporarily to more expensive alternative fuels.
Protestors have accused Meralco – which is the only electricity supplier in Metro Manila – of using its monopoly to exploit customers. The country’s Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order in December, forbidding Meralco from implementing the planned increase. It extended the order by a further 60 days on Feb. 18