By Myrna Velasco
September 11, 2013 (updated)
Mindanao was stricken again with aggravated supply shortfalls in the last few weeks, but with the ahead-of-schedule completion of the maintenance shutdown of the 210-megawatt coal plant of Steag State Power Inc. (SPI), brownouts in the grid are expected easing.
In a statement to the media, SPI plant manager Dr. Carsten Evers noted that “with the two units now in full operations, Mindanao’s power shortfall is expected to improve.”
The company explained that the successive downtimes for the plant’s two generating units are part of their periodic scheduled maintenance works to ensure the facility’s operational efficiency and reliability – which in practice, is a necessary routine to be undertaken by any industry.
The Steag coal plant has two units of 105-MW capacity each. The first unit was on shutdown from July 27 this year; but maintenance work wound up 34 hours ahead of schedule last August 13.
For the second unit, it was completed at least a week in advance, with it having been synchronized to the grid last September 6 at 5 p.m.
The Steag plant accounts for 20-percent of Mindanao’s total power supply, hence, putting its capacity off from the grid could warrant some disruptions in the area’s electricity supply.
The plant operator emphasized that since the start of the facility’s operations in 2006, it has been sustaining very high availability rate of 93 percent.
From then, the power plant already delivered 8.9 billion kilowatt- hours of electricity to the grid – which is considerably a significant achievement given the area’s snarled power supply condition.
The Steag power plant has also been planned for capacity expansion, but with the solutions already forthcoming for Mindanao’s power supply, its equity holders may change tack on planned investments for the asset.
The plant’s corporate vehicle SPI is majority-owned by German firm Steag GmbH with 51 percent stake; while local partners Aboitiz Power Corporation and La Filipina Uy Gongco Corporation hold the balance of 34 percent and 15 percent shareholdings, respectively. source
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