Malaya rehab completion may miss deadline

MANILA, Philippines–The overhaul of the aging Malaya coal-fired power plant may overshoot the timeline set during the contract bidding, Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. said.

PSALM initially said the deadline for the rehabilitation of the facility should be about three months from the issuance of the notice to proceed, which would be out by November 2014.

The overhaul will enable the Malaya plant to bring about 300 megawatts of restored capacity to the Luzon grid by the summer months of 2015, when the supply of power is seen falling short of demand.

However, actual work on the plant may take longer depending on how much damage or wear-and-tear would be found.

“The technical difficulties encountered by the Malaya thermal power plant make its availability and dependability during the Malampaya shutdown from March to June 2015 uncertain,” PSALM president and CEO Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr. said.

It is very likely that, upon actual opening of the unit by the contractor, extensive damage would be discovered, which would result in an extended completion deadline, he said.

The 650-MW thermal or coal-fired power plant in Rizal province is 40 years old. It is composed of a 300-MW unit with a once-through type boiler and a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler. One unit has dependable capacity of 290MW while the other has 340MW, PSALM said.

Malaya Unit 1 has been non-operational since March 21, 2014, due to a material loss of HP turbine rotating parts that lead to the high turbine vibration.

Malaya Unit 2 is now available after undergoing repair on Oct. 3, 2014 due to a leak on its fuel oil heater. The repair took about 11 days. Malaya Unit 2 is also due for overhauling.

“Even assuming that the repair of Malaya Unit 1 will have been successful, Malaya’s 100 percent reliable operation still cannot be guaranteed, given its age, continuous and longer dispatch at full capacity, and fuel delivery constraints,” Ledesma said. The official did not respond to requests for further details.

Since the Malampaya shutdown in November 2013, Malaya Unit 1 had been in operation for 208.07 hours until its manual tripping on March 21, 2014. On the other hand, the total number of operating hours for Malaya Unit 2 since November 2013 until its shutdown on Sept. 22, 2014 was 2301.38.

Malaya has been running as a Must-Run Unit (MRU) since 2010, and this was officially confirmed by the Department of Energy in its issuance dated Jan. 22, 2014.

Assuming that Malaya’s fuel storage tanks are filled to the maximum usable capacity of 68 million liters and with daily fuel replenishment of 750,000 liters per day, it is estimated that Units 1 and 2 shall be able to run continuously only for 22 days at maximum load of 300MW each, 38 days at average load of 200MW each and 70 days at minimum load of 130MW each. Without fuel replenishment, Units 1 and 2 can only operate continuously for 18, 27 and 40 days at average load each of 300MW, 200MW, and Pmin (130MW), respectively.