AboitizPower Barges Now On 24-Hour Shifts

Manila BulletinPublished: March 19, 2013Power barge operator and AboitizPower subsidiary Therma Marine reported its two plants are already running 24 hours every day amid the thinning power supply and the rising demand for electric power in the island.And with summer months expected to affect the water levels in Lake Lanao and the power output of the Agus-Pulangi complex, officers of Therma Marine are expecting for more challenging times for the rest of the year.“The traditional role of peaking plants like Therma Marine is to provide back-up and anciliary power to the grid. But with no other capacity left to help the electric cooperatives, we are now running almost like a baseload power plant,” Therma Marine chief operating officer Jovy P. Batiquin said.Therma Marine produces 200-MW from its power barges in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte and Maco, Compostela Valley provinces.The power barges supply power to 23 electric cooperatives and distribution utilities, to complement supply coming from National Power Corporation (NPC). The state-owned NPC supplies majority of the power supply to all the power cooperatives and utilities in Mindanao.However, with NPC supply not enough to meet the demands of Mindanao, cooperatives run more and more to Therma Marine to lessen the power curtailments and shorten the brownouts in some areas.“Unfortunately, Therma Marine is already fully-contracted and we could no longer produce more and supply more power to electric cooperatives despite many requests for additional capacity,” Batiquin said.The extended running hours, Batqiuin said takes a lot of challenge for the facility’s manpower as well as on maintenance and spare parts.“We have been on our toes since 2010 and we expect to work doubly hard this year and next year until major power plants come in by 2015,” Batiquin said.  source