Misamis Oriental power plant’s 2 units back in operation

DAVAO CITY, Philippines  – The power supply in Mindanao has improved with the reopening the other day of Unit 2 of STEAG State Power Inc. (SPI) in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, after it went through preventive maintenance last Oct. 29.  

The coal power plant’s Unit 2 was back on the Mindanao grid Saturday morning at least 12 hours ahead of its scheduled resumption of operation.

The resumption of STEAG Unit 2 follows the operation of Unit 1 the other weekend, almost a month after it went on scheduled preventive maintenance shutdown last Oct. 6, causing power curtailment in most parts of the South.  

The operation of Units 1 and 2 is expected to improve the already precarious power supply condition in Mindanao, as they account for 210 megawatts to the total supply of more than 1,300 MW of the Mindanao grid.  

STEAG’s power plant has two identical power generating units, each with a net capacity of 105 MW.  

The power station is considered as the most modern and the biggest in Mindanao on a per unit capacity, as it has so far delivered more than 8.3-billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, representing about 20 percent of Mindanao’s total power supply.  

STEAG has operated the plant in Misamis Oriental since 2006, expanding Mindanao’s generation mix and contributing to the stability of the grid.

The preventive maintenance shutdown of the STEAG power units was deemed necessary to ensure the power plant’s operational reliability in the long term.

The preventive maintenance shutdown is supposed to take place every five to six years.   

According to STEAG spokesman Jerome Soldevilla, Unit 1 became operation at least 10 hours ahead of schedule.

The shutdown was carried out as planned and approved by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).  

Soldevilla said it was the first time for STEAG to undertake a relatively long planned plant outage after six years of full commercial operations beginning Nov. 15, 2006.  

During its first six years of operation, STEAG sustained an availability rate of 93.3 percent and a low unplanned outage rate of less than one percent.

But even with its relatively long shutdown last month, STEAG is confident it can still achieve an availability rate of 91 percent by the end of the year.  

Soldevilla said the timing of the shutdown took into consideration the power plant’s operations and maintenance guidelines as well as the projected electricity demand-supply condition of Mindanao during the period.

The goal was to minimize the possible adverse impact of power supply shortfall on the island, he said. 

STEAG is a special purpose company established to build, operate and maintain Mindanao’s first coal-fired power plant.

The company is principally owned by STEAG GmbH, one of the largest electricity producers in Germany and a market leader in clean coal technology and biomass power plants.