Power outages hit Metro as 2 natural gas plants trip

MANILA, Philippines—Power outages hit parts of Metro Manila and surrounding provinces on Thursday, as the 1,000-megawatt Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas power plants of the Lopez-led First Gen Corp. tripped.

Cynthia Alabanza, spokesperson for transmission operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, explained in a phone interview that the facilities went off grid and had stopped supplying power at 1:55 p.m on Thursday.

This had then required an automatic “load shedding” or cutting off electricity supply from certain areas for a few hours as the grid lost a hefty 1,258 MW during those hours, Alabanza said, citing initial reports.

It was only by 3:26 p.m. that the First Gen power plants started to gradually resume operations, she added.

In a separate text message, First Gen, meanwhile, explained that the “five units of the Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo gas plants tripped due to activation of gas turbine protection.”

“The cause of activation of gas turbine protection is still being investigated. As of 5 p.m., four out of five units are back on line,” the company added.

In another phone interview, Joe Zaldarriaga, spokesperson of power distributor Manila Electric Co., said the tripping of the two gas-fed plants caused outages in parts of Sta. Mesa, Sampaloc and Malate in Manila; Kamuning, Balintawak and La Loma in Quezon City; Pasay; San Juan; and Mandaluyong.

The Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo gas facilities, which are both located in Batangas, use the natural gas from the Malampaya gas field off northwest Palawan, to produce electricity that it provides to Meralco.