First Gen delays switch-on of Sta Rita power plant unit

MANILA, Philippines - First Gen Corp. will delay the resumption of operations of Unit 20 of the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Sta. Rita combined cycle power plant until October to ensure its reliability by replacing the damaged transformer of the facility.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, First Gen said preliminary inspection showed the main components of Unit 20’s transformer were damaged, following a fault last month.

“To expedite the restoration of Unit 20, the damaged main transformer will be replaced with the spare main transformer which is stored on site. Unit 20 is expected to return to operation by the first week of October 2016,” the company said.

Unit 20, which has a 250-MW capacity, was under scheduled maintenance outage from July 23 to Aug. 26 for works including maintenance activities on the transformer.

But during the one-month maintenance, a fault occurred in the main transformer which was immediately investigated.

Unit 20 of the Sta. Rita plant was among the nine power plants that were out when a series yellow and red alerts were raised in the Luzon grid by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines from July 25 to 29.

A yellow alert status means that contingency reserves are below the minimum level set by the regulator, but does not necessarily lead to power outages.

Unit 20 is one out of the four units of the Sta. Rita power plant which is owned by First Gas Power Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of First Gen.