EDC restoring 147MW of Leyte plants’ capacity by yearend

MANILA, Philippines – An official of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) said Wednesday, December 3 that they expect to bring back 147 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity to the company’s geothermal power plants in Leyte by end-December. The power plants were badly hit by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), which made landfall in the Philippines last month.

EDC executive vice president Ernesto Pantangco said that 147 MW of the total capacity will be back online by year’s end should everything go well.

EDC previously reported that the cooling towers of the 232-MW Malitbog, 112.5-MW Tongonan and 180-MW Mahanagdong power plants were not working due to damage caused by the typhoon.

EDC also reported damage to the cooling systems of the 130-MW Upper Mahiao power plant. The control systems of Tongonan, Mahanagdong, and Upper Mahiao took on water damage as well. The company’s steamfield lines were also damaged, but they still work.

EDC’s geothermal power plants in Leyte supply around 650 MW of power at total capacity.

According to Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, EDC’s facilities should be fully restored in a year’s time.

“They said that some 120MW will be back online by December 9. Thereafter, they will be able to restore in tranches until all is completed in a year,” he said. (READ: Petilla: I’ll resign if no power by Christmas)

Pantangco commented that EDC was confident in its ability to fix its power plants. “Just yesterday, we’re into 54 MW then today we had to install a piece of equipment so we are down to 12 MW.” 

“As we get the units back to work we will try to target about 147 MW by yearend,” said Pantangco.

EDC said last month that the Upper Mahiao and Leyte Optimization plants were on reliability runs, successfully dispatching 57 MW into the grid.

EDC also revealed that Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc. would not accept the award of its winning bids in the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant auction.

The company explained in a letter to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation that the physical and economic conditions underlying the bidding process, as well as the Independent Power Producer Administrators agreements were altered significantly due to the typhoon’s effects in the Visayas region. – Rappler.com