Steag’s M’danao plant resumes operations

MANILA, Philippines - Steag State Power Inc. (SPI), which accounts for 20 percent of the power supply of Mindanao, is back on line after shutting down on July 29 for a scheduled maintenance, a development expected to improve the power situation in the island, a company official said.

SPI plant manager Carsten Evers said the unit was officially synchronized to the Mindanao grid on Sept. 6, more than a week ahead of schedule.

SPI’s Unit 2, which has a net capacity of 105 megawatts, went offline last July for a maintenance shutdown.

The power plant is located at the Phividec Industrial Estate in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental. It has two identical electric power generating units with a combined net generating capacity of 210 MW.

The plant’s Unit 1 also underwent a scheduled maintenance shutdown beginning July 27, with the maintenance works carried out as planned and completed on Aug. 13, some 34 hours ahead of schedule.

Evers said the maintenance shutdowns were necessary to ensure the facilities’ efficiency and reliability.

 â€œWith the two units now in full operations, Mindanao’s power situation is expected to improve” Evers said.

SPI started commercial operations in November 2006 with an availability rate of 93 percent. About 9.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity have been delivered so far to the Mindanao grid.

The company said that the power plant is considered as Mindanao’s most modern, utilizing state–of-the-art technologies that enabled it to sustain through the years a highly efficient, reliable and responsible power plant operation.

Majority owned by Steag GmbH, one of the largest electricity producers in Germany and an active global player in energy development and services, SPI was established as a special purpose company to finance, build, operate and maintain Mindanao’s first and so far the only coal-fired power plant in the island. 

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla has warned that Mindanao would likely experience power outages due to scheduled maintenance shutdowns of some plants.