Published April 11, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
Lopez-owned First Gen Corporation
has engaged German firm Siemens AG for a “provisional solution” on the capacity
wheeling of its gas-fired plants that had been affected due to
earthquake-induced damage at its San Lorenzo switchyard.
The listed firm told the Philippine
Stock Exchange (PSE) “the company is already working on an interim solution to
restore operability of the San Lorenzo switchyard.”
This will be done in coordination
with Siemens Power Operations, Inc., a subsidiary of the German energy giant,
which is the operations and maintenance (O&M) contractor of the San Lorenzo
and San Gabriel gas plants.
First Gen qualified that following
the hit of earthquakes on Saturday, the operations of its gas-fired generating
facilities in Batangas had been plagued, although there had been no “major
damage” detected on them.
Nevertheless, the Lopez firm noted
the calamity “damaged various components of the San Lorenzo switchyard,” which
is the common facility for the capacity transmission of generated electricity
from its San Lorenzo, San Gabriel and Avion plants.
It explained that since the
switchyard “connects the San Lorenzo, San Gabriel and Avion power plants to the
transmission lines of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, no power
from these plants can currently be exported to the grid.”
On per plant assessment, First Gen
specified that “the Santa Rita plant did not suffer any significant damage, and
has since resumed operations.”
For the company’s other plants,
inspection reports showed that “the San Lorenzo, San Gabriel and Avion power
generating units sustained no damage from the earthquakes that can prevent
these from operating.”
The rated capacities of each plant
are as follows: 1,000 megawatts for Santa Rita; 500MW for San Lorenzo, 414MW
for San Gabriel and 97MW for Avion plants – and all running on natural gas
fuel.
Aside from the Lopez-owned plants,
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi had set out directive to all energy players,
primarily the power plant operators “to ensure the safe and immediate
restoration of their power facilities affected by the earthquake.”
Beyond repair of the power
facilities, the energy department is also keeping an eye on rate impact of the
sudden tightening of power supply due to the combined smash of the natural
calamity, forced outages and scheduled maintenance shutdown of power plants.
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