Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
While many plants are
still on forced outages due to technical problems or on account of transmission
line tripping following last month’s 6.1-magnitude earthquake, the 455-megawatt
San Buenaventura coal plant joint venture of Meralco PowerGen and EGCO Group of
Thailand has already started beefing up power capacity for the supply-strained
Luzon grid.
According to San
Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL) General Manager Frank Thiel, the plant,
which is equipped with super critical technology, had been “successfully
synchronized to the Luzon grid on Tuesday (April 30) at 6 p.m.”
He qualified that as of
yesterday (May 1), the plant was injecting 100MW gross capacity to the Luzon
grid – or a net of roughly 77MW. This is targeted ramped up to 250MW on
Thursday (May 2) in the evening.
SBPL is the corporate
vehicle of the new coal-fired power project sited in Mauban, Quezon province,
which is a tie-up between the power generating arm of Manila Electric Company
(Meralco) and New Growth B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electricity
Generating Pubic Co. Ltd. of Thailand.
The SBPL plant is due
to reach full commercial operation around September this year, yet with it
adding capacity now to the power-scant biggest grid of the country is a highly
favorable development – especially during the high demand months of summer.
“SBPL is currently
on-line and delivering power as part of its testing activities,” Thiel
emphasized. Essentially, the plant is at its commissioning and testing phase
prior to reaching full commercial operations. The plant’s capacity will be fed
to Meralco’s load network as underpinned by their 20-year power supply
agreement.
The SBPL executive
extended credit to system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines
(NGCP) for “a big help in facilitating the synchronization effort.”
Thiel added they are
now targeting to reach commercial operations date (COD) “and be able then to
provide an additional source of reliable, competitively priced power to the
grid.”
As of end-March this
year, it was noted that the power plant project’s engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) contractor – South Korean firm Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. –
already completed 99.29-percent of its work commitment to the facility. The
super critical boiler technology for the plant was supplied by Japanese firm
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems.
Power capacity shoring
up for Luzon grid is at its most critical point this time with the jittery
state of the power system given the recurring yellow and red alert conditions
being experienced – that have consequently raised fears of brownout incidents
during the country’s mid-term elections on May 13.
Even if election day
was declared a holiday, the Department of Energy (DOE) is ensuring that there
would be sufficient supply to support the voting processes at precincts as well
as the eventual tally and transmittal of the election results.
The energy department
has been counting on the capacity additions from new power plants, the
deployment of generating sets primarily in off-grid areas; as well as the wider
participation of entities with gensets in the interruptible load program.
The SBPL executive
extended credit to system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines
(NGCP) for “a big help in facilitating the synchronization effort.”
Thiel added they are
now targeting to reach commercial operations date (COD) “and be able then to
provide an additional source of reliable, competitively priced power to the
grid.”
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