EDC recommissions Visayas power plant
The Unified Leyte power plant, the single biggest source of electricity in the Visayas, is currently on reliability runs and has been partially recommissioned, 19 days after Super Typhoon Yolanda damaged parts of the facility.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Energy Development Corp. ( EDC), the Lopez-owned geothermal company that owns and operates the geothermal plant in Leyte, said the plants have already dispatched 57 megawatts (MW) into the Visayas grid after successful reliability runs.
“EDC has partially re-commissioned the Upper Mahiao and Leyte Optimization Plants. The power plants are currently on reliability runs and have successfully dispatched 57 MW into the grid,” EDC said.
However, this is still a far cry from the plant’s full capacity of 650 MW.
The super typhoon ripped through Central Visayas on Nov. 8, damaging the power plant and rendering the facilities inoperable.
The Unified Leyte plants consist of the 130-megawatt Upper Mahiao, 232-MW Malitbog, 180MW Mahanagdong and 112.5- MW Tongonan power plants.
In an earlier disclosure, EDC said the cooling towers of the Malitbog, Tongonan and Mahanagdong power plants are not working due to significant damage sustained.
In addition, part of the cooling system of Upper Mahiao plant was also damaged, EDC said.
The control systems of Tongonan, Mahanagdong and Upper Mahiao also sustained water damage.
Furthermore, EDC said the small optimization plants consisting of the 15-MW tongonan topping cycle and the 16-MW Malitbog bottoming cycle are now being assessed.
The steam field lines, on the other hand, appear to be operable despite manifest damage sustained, EDC said, but quickly added that the company’s buildings, offices, administration buildings, warehouses, laboratories, staff housing facilities have sustained varying degrees of damage.
Because of the damage sustained by its facilities, EDC has formally written the National Power Corp. (Napocor) regarding the force majeure provisions of its power purchase agreement.