Tuesday, August 13, 2013
AFTER it failed to generate the targeted capacity, the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) informed the Provincial Council about its plan to dismantle its 49-megawatt (MW) Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant (NNGPP) in Barangay Mailum, Bago City, Negros Occidental.
Board Member Patrick Lacson, chairman of the Provincial Council Committee on Environment, said EDC will retain only the facilities and equipment appropriate to the six to 8-MW capacity it generating from the NNGPP.
The billions worth power plant will be transferred to the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant of EDC in Negros Oriental, Lacson said.
With these plans of EDC, Lacson pointed out that he is pushing for the review of the compliance with the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Provincial Government and EDC, when it entered and drilled its wells at the buffer zone of Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park.
"EDC failed to get the 49-megawatt targeted capacity despite the fact that they have entered the buffer zone. Part of the MOA is for the company to replenish each tree cut with 100 seedlings", Lacson pointed out.
In July 2011, EDC has bared plans of using a smaller power plant to make its operations more efficient.
“Rightsizing NNGPP is a must to be cost-effective. The size of the plant turbine should match the amount of steam produced,” EDC president and chief operating officer Richard Tantoco had said in a press release.
He also said that there is high temperature in the area and the temperature increases towards the buffer zone –- a fact first established by the 1995 Japan OECF study.
The company’s technical experts measured 285 Degrees Centigrade at the buffer zone while the cut-off for commercial temperature for a power project is only 220 degrees Centigrade.
But while there is temperature, further study indicates there is low permeability and calcification or mineral scaling inside the wellbore is causing the low production.
Experts from New Zealand and the United States tapped by EDC to study the area and validate the findings concurred with the company’s geoscientists that the area is challenging and has permeability concerns. source
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