EDC recommissions Leyte plants

Business Mirror

27 Nov 2013 

 

Written by Lenie Lectura

LOPEZ-led Energy Development Corp. (EDC) informed the stock exchange on Wednesday that it has partially recommissioned some of its power plants in Leyte, following the massive destruction Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) made on its power facilities.

EDC said the Upper Mahiao and Leyte Optimization plants are “currently on reliability runs and have successfully dispatched 57 megawatts (MW) into the grid.”

The company reported last week that the cooling towers of its 232-MW Malitbog, 112.5-MW Tongonan and 180-MW Mahanagdong power plants were rendered inoperable due to significant damage sustained by the facilities.  Also, part of the cooling systems of 130-MW Upper Mahiao was also damaged. Likewise, the control systems of Tongonan, Mahanagdongand Upper Mahiao also underwent water damage.

EDC said it is still assessing the damages on the small optimization plants consisting of 15-MW Tongonan Topping Cycle and the 16-MW Malitbog Bottoming Cycle. The company’s steamfield lines were also damaged but are still operable. 

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said EDC’s facilities will be fully restored in one year. “They said that some 120MW will be back on line by December 9. Thereafter, they will be able to restore [operations] in tranches until all is completed in a year.”

EDC also disclosed that its unit Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc. (ULGEI) will not accept the award of its winning bids in the recently concluded Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant auction.

ULGEI has written the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. that “the physical and economic conditions underlying the bidding process and the independent power producer administrators’ administration agreements have been dramatically altered by the severe and widespread destruction caused by the typhoon in the Eastern and Western Visayas regions.”   source