Steag restarts Misamis coal plant

MANILA, Philippines - Steag State Power Inc. (SPI) has resumed operations of one of its two electric generators on Wednesday, after more than two months since the facility shut down and triggered an island-wide blackout in Mindanao.

SPI, a German-owned power producer, operates a 210-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental.

In an advisory, SPI plant manager Carsten Evers said the resumption of one of the electric generators will already boost power supply in Mindanao and would provide some relief to the rotational blackouts currently being experienced in some parts of the island.

The plant’s Unit 2 went on line and was able to supply power to the Mindanao grid around 8:55 p.m. on Wednesday, ahead of its modified May 8 target.

 â€œWe are happy to announce that SPI has added up 105 MW to the grid and we hope this will provide some relief in the precarious power supply condition of Mindanao,” Evers said.

Following this, the German-owned power operator said the company is continuously working to complete the repair of Unit 1 and put it on line on or before June 1.

“We recognize the necessity and urgency of bringing the units back on line and rest assured that we are doing our best to restore our full capacity the soonest possible time,” Evers also said.

He added that power plant preventive maintenance activities are also being implemented concurrently with the ongoing repair and restoration works to optimize the time and to minimize power generation interruptions due to planned plant outages in the remaining months of the year.

The SPI plant has has two identical electric generators, each with a net generating capacity of 105 MW, or a total combined net generating output of 210 MW.

Since the start of its full commercial operations in November 2006, SPI has delivered more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electric power to the grid accounting for about a fifth of the island’s total power supply, the company said.

It is owned by German company Steag GmbH, with Aboitiz Power Corp. and La Filipina Uygongco Corp. as partners.