Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Leyte geothermal plants back — EDC

Manila Standard Today
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Dec. 04, 2013 at 12:03am

Energy Development Corp., operator of the Unified Leyte geothermal power plants, is set to supply around 147 megawatts to the Visayas grid by the end of the month, a company official said Tuesday.

The Unified Leyte power facilities suffered severe damage in November, with its entire 650-MW capacity “inoperable” shortly after super typhoon Yolanda struck.

“We will try to target, if everything goes well, about 147 MW by yearend,” EDC executive vice president Ernesto Pantangco told reporters.

Pantangco said EDC partially re-commissioned the Upper Mahiao and Leyte Optimization Plants, delivering around 57 MW to the Visayas grid.

Pantangco, however, said the output fell to 12 MW to give way to the installation of some equipment.

The Unified Leyte facilities straddles Ormoc City and Kananga municipality in western Leyte, areas that bore the brunt of typhoon Yolanda.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla earlier said the restoration of the entire 650-MW facility of Unified Leyte might take about a year.

EDC earlier reported that the cooling towers of the Malitbog (232 MW), Tongonan (112.5 MW) and Mahanagdong (180 MW) power plants conked out after the typhoon destroyed them.

The company said part of the cooling system of the Upper Mahiao (130 MW) was also damaged. Cooling towers prevent turbines from overheating. The control systems of Tongonan, Mahanagdong and Upper Mahiao also sustained water damage. 

EDC’s wholly owned subsidiary Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc. last week said it could not accept government’s award as the highest bidder for the Unified Leyte geotheral power contracts under the same conditions.

Unified Leyte was appointed one of the seven independent power producer administrators for the strips of energy and emerged as the highest bidder to administer the bulk energy, involving a capacity in excess of the 240 MW.  source

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