Prime Infra's gas plants deployed to offset supply gap amid outages — DOE

PrimeCoreGen’s natural gas plants were deployed to run at high capacity on Wednesday to offset supply gaps as the Luzon power grid was crippled by plant outages coupled with high demand amid the hot, dry season weather, which prompted the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to hoist a red alert over the island.

In a text message to reporters on Thursday, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said PrimeCoreGen natural gas facilities were dispatched during the period when the NGCP placed the grid under red alert status due to forced outages affecting at least 48 power plants, leading to 3,942.8 megawatts (MW) of unavailable capacity.

PrimeCoreGen is operating First Gen’s natural gas plants—1,000 MW Sta. Rita, 450 MW San Gabriel, and 97 MW Avion—after Razon-led Prime Infra’s acquisition of a 60% majority stake in First Gen in 2025.

“PrimeCoreGen / First Gen natural gas plants were actively dispatched during the period. Sta. Rita and Ilijan units exhibited sustained high utilization, EERI units showed stable mid-to-high loading, San Gabriel operated at moderate levels, and Avion units remained at relatively low but consistent output levels,” Guevara said.

During Wednesday’s red alert, the Luzon power grid was running at an available capacity of 14,153 MW against a peak demand of 13,558 MW, resulting in an operating reserve margin of 595 MW.

The grid operator issued the red alert after a total of 3,942.8 MW became unavailable due to forced outages across the following power plants:

- Malaya U1 (300 MW)

- Hypergreen (10 MW)

- Malaya U2 (130 MW)

- Trust Biomass (1.7 MW)

- Matuno (8.7 MW)

- Sal-Angan (2.4 MW)

- Irisan U1 (5.5 MW)

- NMH U1 (3.9 MW)

- Bineng U1 (19.8 MW)

- Cleangreen U1 (10.8 MW)

- NIA U1 (6 MW)

- Lafarge U1 (5.5 MW)

- San Roque U2 (145 MW)

- MGC Butao (1.3 MW)

- Magat U4 (97 MW)

- VSGrip Biomass (5.4 MW)

- Binga U4 (35 MW)

- Magat U2 (97 MW)

- Botocan (23 MW)

- Masinloc U3 (307.2 MW)

- EERI U1 (420.6 MW)

- EERI U2 (421.9 MW)

- EERI U3 (419.6 MW)

- Ilijan A (600 MW)

- Ilijan B (600 MW)

- Bacman US (20 MW)

- Palayan Binary (24 MW)

- Binga U3 (35 MW)

- Casecnan U1 (82.5 MW)

- Smithbell U1 (1.8 MW)

- Barit (1.8 MW)

- Colasi (4 MW)

- Lower Labayat (1.4 MW)

- Tibag (5.8 MW)

- Upper Labayat (3.5 MW)

- Limay U8 (90 MW)

In addition, 738.8 MW of capacity was also unavailable to the grid due to plants operating at “derated” levels, including:

- Sual U1 (270 MW)

- Tiwi (14 MW)

- Pagbilao U3 (330 MW)

- Makban A (67 MW)

- Tiwi C (68 MW)

- Makban B (84 MW)

- Makban E (19 MW)

- Masinloc U1 (305 MW)

- Masinloc U2 (305 MW)

- SCPC U1 (120 MW)

- Makban D (26.5 MW)

- GMEC U2 (305 MW)

Red is the highest alert level and is declared when the electricity supply is insufficient to meet demand since the reserves are depleted.

During this status, widespread power interruptions or rotational brownouts are expected as electricity is temporarily cut in certain areas on a scheduled basis to prevent the entire grid from collapsing.

The NGCP implemented rotating brownouts to maintain the integrity of the grid. About 920,000 customers of Meralco experienced power interruptions lasting two to three hours on Wednesday evening. —VBL, GMA News