Business Mirror
Published on Monday, 18 March 2013 19:19 Written by Lenie Lectura
ABOITIZPOWER subsidiary Therma Marine on Monday said its two plants are now running 24 hours a day to augment the demand for electric power in Mindanao.
“The traditional role of peaking plants like Therma Marine is to provide backup and ancillary power to the grid. But with no other capacity left to help the electric cooperatives, we are now running almost like a base-load power plant,” Therma Marine Chief Operating Officer Jovy P. Batiquin said in a statement.
The company produces 200 megawatts from its power barges in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte and Maco, Compostela Valley provinces. The power barges supply power to 23 electric cooperatives and distribution utilities, to complement supply coming from the National Power Corp. (Napocor), which supplies the majority of the power supply to all the power cooperatives and utilities in the southern island.
However, with supply from the Napocor not enough to meet the demands of Mindanao, cooperatives run Therma Marine to lessen the power curtailments and shorten the brownouts in some areas.
“Unfortunately, Therma Marine is already fully contracted and we could no longer produce more and supply more power to electric cooperatives despite many requests for additional capacity,” Batiquin said.
The extended running hours, Batiqiuin said, poses a lot of challenge for the facility’s manpower as well as on maintenance and spare parts. “We have been on our toes since 2010 and we expect to work doubly hard this year and next year until major power plants come in by 2015.”
AboitizPower is the holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s investments in power generation, distribution, retail and power services. source
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