Steag operations back to normal after shutting down generating unit

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Independent power producer Steag State Power Inc. (SPI) has announced it has gone back to its normal operations after shutting down one of its generating units for a preventive maintenance last Saturday and Sunday.

In an emailed statement Monday, SPI spokesperson Jerome Soldevilla said the coal-fired power plant is “currently in full capacity operations following the synchronization back to the Mindanao grid of its Unit 1 over the weekend.”

Since it started its operations in 2006, the power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental has delivered more than 12 billion kilowatts of power to the Mindanao grid and has sustained a high availability rating of 90 percent with low unplanned outage rate of 2.5 percent.

Its two generating units are capable of producing a total 210 megawatts that it feeds to the island’s grid.

During the temporary shutdown, Mindanao has lost 105 megawatts of power for two days.

Earlier, SPI president and CEO Dr. Bodo Goerlich explained the company’s strategy to conduct initial preventive maintenance activities during the first quarter of this year to ensure that the power plant is optimally available during the summer season.

Meanwhile, the Mindanao grid has a reserve power of 62 megawatts, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) outlook as of 1 p.m. Monday.

The NGCP said the island has a system capacity of 1,471 megawatts, with system peak at 1,409 megawatts, much lower than the rest of the country.

Luzon has a system capacity of 9,718 megawatts and system peak of 8,358 with reserve of 1,360 while Visayas has 1,801 megawatts of system capacity, 1,607 of system peak and reserve of 194, it added. RAM

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