Power supply in Mindanao to ease up

Sunstar Cagayan de Oro
By Butch D. Enerio
Friday, March 13, 2015

A POWER generator said that power supply in Mindanao is expected to ease up as its generating capacity has now been fully restored.

Steag State Power Inc. (SPI), in a statement, said it has successfully completed the preventive maintenance work of its electric power-generating unit 1 days ahead of its imposed schedule on March 16 this year.

Unit 1, which went offline for a preventive maintenance beginning February 21, 2015, was synchronized to the Mindanao grid on Thursday, March 12, around 12:25 p.m.

Earlier, SPI’s Unit 2, which also went offline for preventive maintenance beginning February 19, was restored back to the grid on March 2 as scheduled.

SPI president and chief executive officer (CEO) Dr. Bodo Goerlich said the preventive maintenance activities for Unit 1 were successfully completed even ahead of schedule.

He expressed optimism that with the two units now operating at full capacity, Mindanao’s power supply condition will improve.

“Without our full capacity now made available, we expect the power supply in Mindanao will improve,” Goerlich said.

Goerlich said the timely conduct of the preventive maintenance and restoration of the units just in time for the onset of the summer months could provide a major relief to the volatile power supply condition of the island.

“We are confident that with our generating units now back on line, Mindanao is more prepared to meet its electricity supply needs, especially during the summer months where the demand is usually at its peak,” Goerlich said.

SPI plant manager Dr. Carsten Evers said the preventive maintenance works need to be carried out periodically to sustain optimum efficiency and reliability of the electric generating units.

The preventive maintenance schedule was also carefully planned, scheduled and coordinated with key players in the power industry including the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to minimize any adverse impact to the transmission line.

SPI’s power plant at the PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental is composed of two identical power-generating units, each with a net generating output of 105MW. Since the start of its operations in November 2006, SPI has delivered more than 11.5 billion kWh of electricity representing about a fifth of Mindanao’s total power supply. source