Aboitiz’s 150MW coal to operate soon

At least 150 megawatts of electricity coming from the Aboitiz Power’s coal-fired power plants in Davao City will have its full commercial operations anytime soon, an official said. The plant is operated by the Therma South, Incorporated (TSI), a subsidiary of the Aboitiz Power. Wilfredo Rodolfo III, communications officer of the Aboitiz Power in Mindanao, said they are already wrapping up the testing and commissioning of their first coal plant in Toril district and would be announcing until September 27 its full commercial operations. This as TSI is also fast tracking the repairs of its second engine, which also has a capacity of 150MW, he said. According to Rodolfo, the unit has bogged down early April when Mindanao grid experienced shortage of power while it was on the process of reliability testing. Some of the equipment had already been manufactured abroad and anytime soon, he stressed, these would be shipped to the Philippines for TSI’s coal,” he added. He assured the repairs would be completed before its scheduled full commercial operations on February next year. Counter El Nino effects The TSI’s operations this September, according to Rodolfo, will help address power deficiency in Mindanao, despite the El Nino phenomenon to hit the region in the coming months. According to reports, El Nino could affect the normal rainfall pattern in the country, which may generally result in reduced rainfall. Rodolfo said big chunks of power, or at least 51 percent of the total power supply of Mindanao, come from hydro-electric power plants in Lanao del Sur. Hopefully, our solution to El Nino is the TSI coal.We pray our [Agus] hydro plants won’t be affected by the severe drought [as predicted by our weather experts].But if the power situation in Mindanao becomes precarious, at least, the TSI will be ready to supply additional power for the grid,” he explained. The AboitizPower has also hydro-electric power plants, with a capacity of 54 MW, that supply the electricity needs of the Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative in Digos City and the Davao Light and Power Company in Davao City. Fortunately, the production of power of our hydro plants in Davao, run by Hedcor, another subsidiary of the AboitizPower, has been very good, despite the mild El Nino we experienced [early this year].We just have to manage well our watershed so that it won’t be affected when drought comes anytime this year,” he said. TMI diesel-fed plant shutdown Meantime, the AboitizPower has already completed the immediate repairs of its diesel-fed power plants in Maco, Compostela Valley, which is managed by one of its subsidiaries, the Therma Marine, Incorporated. Last week, the TMI management has to shut off its plants when they experienced engine trouble. The TMI shutdown has resulted to two to three hours of rotating blackouts in the coverage area of the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), a power firm that distributes electricity to at least 130 thousand electric consumers in North Cotabato province. Rodolfo said that just like any other engine, it will soon experience trouble. The TMI power plants were actually designed as peaking plants, meaning, they will only supply power during peak hours.But because of lack of power in the Mindanao grid, they now act as baseload.When we use these plants 24 hours daily, sooner or later, we will see problems with our equipment,” he said. The repairs of the TMI plants were completed on Saturday.