Steag coal plant in Mindanao shuts down for maintenance

MANILA, Philippines - Steag State Power Inc. (SPI), the German operator of the 210-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Mindanao, said the facility would go on planned maintenance shutdown from February to March this year.

The company said the coal plant’s Unit 1 would go on maintenance shutdown from Feb. 19 to March 2, while the second unit would have its maintenance activities from Feb. 21 to March 16.

As a consequence of the shutdown, there would be rotating blackouts in Mindanao during the period.

SPI plant manager Carsten Evers said the shutdown is necessary for the company to be able to carry out inspection and other maintenance works.

 “These maintenance activities are part of the company’s commitment to sustain quality customer service by way of ensuring that the power plant is able to optimize its long term operations and produce the power needed to sustain Mindanao’s growth and development,” he said.

Evers also said Steag has coordinated the maintenance schedule with National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), as well as with the National Power Corp. (Napocor), the state-owned power generation company.

“We have closely coordinated this schedule with our partners in the power industry in order to minimize any impact on the island’s volatile electric power supply condition” Evers said.

He said the target is to work within the schedule and bring the units back online as soon as possible.

SPI’s power plant, located inside the Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental, is composed of two identical power generating units, each with a net generating output of 105 MW.

Plant operations commenced in November 2006. Since then, the coal facility has  delivered more than 11.5 billion kilowatts of electricity to the Mindanao grid,  representing about a fifth of the island’s total power supply.

SPI is principally owned by German company Steag GmbH. The company is a leader in advanced coal-power generation technology and one of the pioneers in operating and maintaining a highly efficient and reliable coal-fired power plant in the country.

In February last year, the plant was forced to shut down due to a damage on its turbine-electric generating sets.