Monday, October 13, 2014

Malaya plant seen unreliable next year

Manila Standard Today
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Oct. 13, 2014 at 11:01pm

The government cannot depend on the 40-year-old Malaya thermal power plant to augment power supply during the dry months next year with the scheduled Malampaya natural gas platform shutdown, a government agency said Monday.

“The technical difficulties encountered by Malaya thermal power plant make its availability and dependability during the Malampaya shutdown from March to June 2015 uncertain,” Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. president and chief executive Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said.

Malaya thermal power plant is a 40-year-old plant, composed of two units with a dependable capacity of 290 MW and 340 MW, respectively.

Malaya Unit 1 has been non-operational since March 2014, due to a material loss of turbine rotating parts that led to high turbine vibration. Malaya Unit 1’s overhauling is expected to be completed before yearend, assuming a 90-day completion period.

PSALM’s bids and awards committee will conduct the post-qualification of the negotiated procurement based on emergency cases this month.

“However, it is very likely that, upon actual opening of the unit by the contractor, a more extensive damage would be discovered. This contingency would result in an extended completion period,” PSALM said.

Malaya Unit 2 is now available after undergoing repair on Oct. 3, 2014 due to a leak on its fuel oil heater. The repair took 11 days. Malaya Unit 2 is also due for overhauling.

“Even assuming that the repair of Malaya Unit 1 shall have been successful, Malaya’s 100-percent reliable operation still cannot be guaranteed, given its age, continuous and longer dispatch at full capacity, and fuel delivery constraints,” PSALM said.

It said since the Malampaya shutdown in November 2013, Malaya Unit 1 had been in operation for 208.07 hours until its manual tripping on March 21, 2014. source

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