Unit at First Gen’s Batangas plant malfunctions

FIRST GEN Corp. told the stock exchange on Wednesday that the main generator of one of the units of its combined cycle gas turbine plant in Santa Rita, Batangas had malfunctioned.

“Please be advised that a fault occurred at the main generator transformer of Unit 20 of the 1000 MW [megawatts] Santa Rita Combined Cycle Power Plant,” the Lopez-led company said.

Sought for comment, First Gen sent a text message from one of its vice- presidents, Jerome H. Cainglet, that the unit’s capacity is 250 MW and that it was on a scheduled maintenance.

“We are checking the condition of the transformer of the unit which encountered a fault and we will advise if there is a need to extend the outage schedule,” Mr. Cainglet said.

The unit is one of four at the Santa Rita power plant, which is owned and operated by First Gen subsidiary First Gas Power Corp. (FGPC) The plant runs on natural gas and has an installed capacity of 1,060 MW and a dependable capacity of 1,040 MW, data from the Department of Energy show.

“The unit is under scheduled maintenance outage from July 23 to Aug. 26, 2016 for works including maintenance activities on the said transformer,” the listed company’s disclosure read.

“Investigation is ongoing to confirm the condition of the transformer. If necessary, FGPC can immediately deploy its spare main generator transformer which is stored at the Santa Rita Power Plant site,” it said.

“We will advise you of material developments in this regard,” it added.

The Santa Rita plant is one of two natural gas power plants owned and operated by First Gas in Luzon. The other is the 540-MW two-unit San Lorenzo combined cycle gas turbine also in Santa Rita, Batangas.

First Gen’s two new power plants — the 97-MW Avion and the 414-MW San Gabriel started their commissioning phase earlier this year just in time for the tightness in supply that resulted in the series of “yellow” and “red” alert status when reserved power thinned and fell below the required level to maintain stable electricity supply.

The San Gabriel gas- fired power plant is suited for “midmerit” operations as it adjusts its electricity output as demand for varies throughout the day. The Avion open-cycle “peaking” power plant runs when there is a high demand.

“Both plants have already demonstrated the ability to operate and produce power at full (or even above full) capacity, which has benefited consumers as they ease the current supply tightness,” First Gen previously said.

Grid-connected power plants in Luzon as of June have a combined installed capacity of 14,117.6 MW, of which 12,940.5 MW are classified as dependable, DoE data shows. Electricity demand on the country’s main island peaked at around 9,700 MW so far this year.

First Gen’s four plants could answer a fifth of that demand. First Gen has 19 power plants across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, generating 2,942 MW as of the company’s last count. These plants account for 17% of the country’s energy requirement, it added.

On Wednesday, shares in First Gen fell by 3.23% to P24 each from P24.80 the previous day.