Manila Bulletin
by Myrna Velasco
July 11, 2014
Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla sounded off probabilities of ‘blackout-stricken weekend” because of the scheduled two-day maintenance shutdown of the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan gas-fired power facility.
Nevertheless, he also retreated a bit from that pronouncement, indicating that if the other plants on forced outage earlier in the week could be synchronized back to the grid as they are needed, anticipated power interruptions can still be avoided.
PETILLA, Manila Bulletin
PETILLAetti
Still, based on DOE’s statement to the media as of 4p.m. Friday, power interruptions may strike around 10a.m. Saturday on at least one-hour rotation, if the two coal plants on outage – the Calaca and GNPower facilities – cannot go back to operation.
The Ilijan plant, based on its submitted maintenance outage to the Department of Energy (DOE), will be out from the system July 12 and 13. Other power plants are also on scheduled maintenance shutdowns.
Being one of the biggest capacities depended upon by Luzon grid, the Ilijan plant’s non-availability could strain system reserves or even supply, especially if forced outages will occur to other generating facilities.
But since the ‘pigging’ maintenance activity will happen on a weekend, the consumption will be lower, thus, it would not be as critical as having them on other days.
The ‘pigging activity’ for the 15-kilometer pipeline connecting the Ilijan power plant to its gas source from the Malampaya platform, delves with, but not limited to, “cleaning and inspecting’ its pipelines while ensuring that product flow will not be disturbed.
PIGs, which were originally referred to as ‘Pipeline Inspection Gauge” or ‘Pipeline Intervention Gadget’, will be used in the ‘clean up process’ for the pipelines through the use of ‘pig launchers.’ This maintenance work will ensure the continuous efficient operations of the pipeline and that no contamination is happening along the chain.
Petilla justified that the scheduled ‘pigging’ for the Ilijan pipeline can no longer be postponed, because plant operator Korea Electric Power Corporation has already contracted for this maintenance work long before.
“The pigging could no longer be rescheduled, as the equipments (sic) for the process are not readily available,” the energy chief said.
He added “we have the equipments (sic) ready, so we might as well do it as scheduled…we can’t risk resetting the pigging as there are other power plants that are scheduled for maintenance.”
Petilla added that when simultaneous shutdowns will be allowed by his department, it might “just aggravate” the grid’s power supply condition.
He stressed the energy department will “closely monitor all the activities during the ‘pigging’ and coordinate with all concerned energy agencies and companies.” source
No comments:
Post a Comment