Steag completes repair works on Mindanao coal power facility

By Iris Gonzales (The Philippine Star) | Updated March 14, 2015 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - Steag State Power Inc. (SPI), the German-owned operator of a 210-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Mindanao, has completed the preventive maintenance shutdown for the plant’s Unit 1 ahead of its March 16 self-imposed deadline.

Unit 1, which went offline for a planned preventive maintenance starting Feb. 21, was synchronized to the Mindanao grid on March 12 while Unit 2, was restored earlier, on March 2.

SPI president and chief executive officer (CEO) Bodo Goerlich expressed optimism that with the two units now operating at full capacity, Mindanao’s power supply condition would improve.

“With our full capacity now made available, we expect the power supply condition in Mindanao to improve” he said.

He also said the timely conduct of the preventive maintenance and restoration of the units just in time for the onset of the summer months could provide a major relief to the volatile power supply condition of the island.

“We are confident that with our units now back on line, Mindanao is more prepared to meet its electric supply needs especially during the summer months where demand usually is at its peak,” Goerlich said.

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For his part, SPI power plant manager Carsten Evers said it was necessary to implement preventive maintenance to be carried out periodically to sustain optimum efficiency and reliability of the electric generating units.

SPI’s power plant, located inside the Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental, is composed of two identical power generating units, each with a net generating output of 105 MW.

Plant operations commenced in November 2006. Since then, the coal facility has delivered more than 11.5 billion kilowatts of electricity to the Mindanao grid, representing about a fifth of the island’s total power supply.

SPI is principally owned by German company Steag GmbH. The company is a leader in advanced coal-power generation technology and one of the pioneers in operating and maintaining a highly efficient and reliable coal-fired power plant in the country.

In February last year, the plant was forced to shut down due to a damage on its turbine-electric generating sets. source