Plant shutdown to weigh on Mindanao grid

Business World Online

Posted on October 03, 2012 11:03:29 PM

ELECTRICITY-DEFICIENT Mindanao will see supply dip even further when two plants of STEAG State Power, Inc. (SPI) -- each with capacity of 105 megawatts (MW) -- are shut down for “preventive maintenance,” the company said in a statement yesterday.

Both coal-fired plants, which are in Misamis Oriental, provide about 20% of the entire island’s current power capacity.

The first plant will be shut down from Oct. 6 to 24, while the second unit will be down from Oct. 9 to Nov. 10, the company said in its statement.

SPI cited the necessity of “carrying out maintenance works as planned and scheduled” in order to ensure “the power plants’ operational reliability.”

It added that the timing of maintenance “takes into consideration the power plants’ operations and maintenance guidelines as well as the projected electricity demand-supply condition of Mindanao during the period.”

While it was not immediately clear what would offset the projected temporary loss of supply on those maintenance dates, the Web site of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines showed that Mindanao yesterday had a 1870-MW shortage, with system peak demand of 1,232 MW outstripping a system capacity of just 1,045 MW.    source