Manila Standard Today
Energy Development Corp., the country’s largest geothermal producer, has temporarily shut down its 49-megawatt power plant in Negros Occidental for maintenance works.
Energy Development said in August that it wanted to bring back steam supply in the geothermal power plant to 49 MW. The geothermal production field, which produces steam for the power plant produced limited steam of as low as 7 MW in August.
“Our findings have been validated by the international third party experts we engaged to study the resource. They confirmed that the area is challenging and that further technical studies are needed,” Energy Development senior vice president for technical services Manuel Ogena said.
Energy Development has been looking for ways to increase the steam from the Northern Negros Geothermal Production Field, which the company also operates.
“This will entail more investments and time but we are determined to make the resource viable for the province to benefit from clean, indigenous energy,” Ogena said.
Energy Development, an affiliate of First Gen Corp., said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, that its findings concurred with those of its consultants from the US and New Zealand.
Ogena said the shutdown of the power plant started Sunday midnight while the technical study would last for nine months at an estimated cost of P6 million.
“The power plant has been due for preventive maintenance since June but we deferred it due to the tight power supply in the Visayas,” Ogena said.
“Now that several new power plants are coming in and some units of the geothermal plants of Green Core Geothermal Inc. have been rehabilitated, it is also a good time for us to conduct the maintenance work,” he added. Alena Mae S. Flores
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