Whose lives are at stake during rotational brownouts?

In a world powered by electricity, even the slightest power outage can be life-threatening.

Nowhere is this more evident than inside hospitals and other medical facilities, where even the slightest disruption of electricity can put an end to someone’s life.

Recently, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) conducted rotational brownouts to minimize the impact of high demand in electricity throughout the country.

As these scheduled outages swept across parts of Luzon and Visayas this week, the effects extended far beyond darkened homes and paused business operations. Inside the medical industry, every second without power is a race against time.

Scheduled brownout, unscheduled impacts

Unlike ordinary households, medical facilities and equipment cannot simply “wait out” a brownout.

Equipment such as ventilators, nebulizers, dialysis machines, incubators, vaccine refrigerators and the like rely heavily on a continuous supply of energy. Even a brief interruption can delay someone’s treatment, ruin laboratory samples, or worse, put critically ill patients in danger.

For instance, an 80-year-old father from Laguna died on May 16 after failing to undergo nebulization due to the rotational brownout. 

In order to run, nebulizers need electricity—which was out in their area for more than three hours.

Moreover, hospitals have faced mounting pressure to maintain operations despite unstable power conditions.

In Lapu-lapu City, social media posts alleging a power outage in an emergency room sparked public concern over whether backup generators can function properly.

While the city officials denied claims that the hospital completely lost power, the incident still caused public anxiety surrounding the vulnerability of healthcare facilities during brownouts.

Unfortunately, the problem does not revolve around rotational brownouts, but extended periods of outages too.

Earlier this year in March, hospitals in Zamboanga were among the thousands of establishments that were affected by a blackout that lasted for almost 40 hours.

The incident forced healthcare centers to run on generators or temporarily close. Particularly, some hospitals within the region operated on their generators throughout the entire blackout, and almost ran out of diesel. 

If problems like these persist, it can indirectly affect patients and someone’s health. 

The underlying darkness

Still, why did the NGCP have to compromise and conduct rotational brownouts to stabilize the country’s electricity supply?

According to NGCP, recent shortages were triggered by soaring electricity demand due to extreme heat, and abrupt disruptions in the electricity supply.’

The grid reportedly lost 668MW of electricity capacity, and resorted to Manual Load Dropping (MLD) or commonly known as rotational brownouts to prevent the collapse of the entire grid.

In addition, 27 power plants had been unavailable since early May due to outages, worsening the already incapable reserve supply in both Luzon and Visayas.

As shown in the recent yellow and red alerts in the grid, it is evident that supply can no longer support the continuously-rising demand of electricity in the country.

According to a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), electricity consumption in the Philippines surged from 52,941 gigawatt-hours in 2003, to 126,941 in 2024—more than double the increase between the two decades.

Meanwhile, transmission lines increased from 20,774 circuit-kilometers to only at least 23,110 circuit-kilometers, a mere 11% improvement.

If the growth imbalance continues, it will constantly contribute to recurrent grid congestion, constant reliability issues, and energy insecurity.

Moreover, the Senate had also looked into delayed infrastructure projects by the NGCP, dubbing the projects ‘paid yet unseen.’ In recent years, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had already fined NGCP for delayed transmission projects intended to strengthen the grid.

Nonetheless, these issues have further intensified public criticism over corruption and inefficiency toward the energy sector. 

While the recent outages were directly triggered by plant shutdowns and soaring electricity demand due to hot weather, long-standing governance problems and delayed works may and will weaken the country’s ability to modernize fast enough to meet demand.

A spark of hope

These rotational brownouts further called for the urgent need of the country to invest in stronger and more reliable energy technology—especially in sectors where lives depend on uninterrupted energy.

Modern hospitals rely heavily on technology to operate efficiently. Without stable electricity, life-changing technologies such as ventilators, dialysis machines, and nebulizers can instantly become unusable.

Investing in renewable energy, smart grids, and improved backup facilities can help reduce the dependence on overstressed power plants did while making even the smallest health centers operating during outages.

In fact, the Department of Energy (DOE) recently fast-tracked multiple renewable projects expected to contribute around 1,471MW of additional power to the grid as part to reducing dependence on unstable power sources. 

Initiatives such as this will be crucial not only for preventing outages, but also for protecting essential services such as healthcare.

Life on the line

When electricity fails, machines that help patients breathe fall silent, lab procedures halt, and emergency care can be delayed longer. 

As the electricity demand continues to rise in the Philippines, investing in modern energy facilities and letting go of corrupt business inside grid corporations is no longer a choice at this point.

Instead it is a must, and a reminder that another person can and might experience the same thing during a rotational brownout—hanging on to their lives until the power comes back on.