Manila Times.net
ENERGY Development Corp. (EDC) has resumed operations of the shuttered Northern Negros geothermal power plant to make way for tests on the facility.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said that as part of ongoing technical studies on the geothermal facility, the company recommissioned the plant on Tuesday.
“The power plant will be operated for only a limited period of time, i.e., approximately three months,” it added.
Located in Bago City, Negros Occidental, the said plant was the first fully owned power-generating facility of EDC, the country’s largest geothermal energy developer.
The power facility, which was completed in 2007, was constructed by Japan’s Kanematsu Corp. through a $68.5 million funding provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
The plant’s 49-megawatt output, however, has been persistently affected by uncontrolled calcite clogging of its geothermal wells, which prevents the wells from releasing the steam from its very source underneath the earth.
EDC shut down the plant in November last year to make way for a technical study that is expected to last nine months.
At end-March, EDC already completed 61 percent of the geophysical studies on the plant.
The company said that while its technical personnel are undertaking an initial data analysis and evaluation on the data they have so far, it will implement activities in line with the optimization of production wells in the geothermal plant.
“In the process, [EDC] has decided that it would be best to convert to electricity the geothermal steam generated during the testing and has re-commissioned the power plant as of 2103H April 5, 2011 at 8.5 megawatt [gross],” the company said.
EDC shares closed at P6.51 apiece, up from their previous close of P6.38.
Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
No comments:
Post a Comment