EDC says electricity output in Leyte up

by Alena Mae S. Flores – July 18, 2017 at 08:16 pm

from Manila Standard Today

Geothermal energy leader Energy Development Corp. has restored its marshaling station in Leyte, enabling the delivery of an aggregate 200 megawatts from the Malitbog and Upper Mahiao geothermal plants.

The marshaling station is where power from the Malitbog, Upper Mahiao and Mahanagdong plants is “pooled together” prior to transmitting the output from a “single point” to the islands of Leyte, Bohol, Cebu and Luzon as needed.

“Based on initial assessment, the Mahanagdong Power Plant will need to be on extended outage for repair works on damages to the structures of cooling tower units and to the plant’s substation,” EDC said in a disclose to the Philippine Stock Exchange Tuesday.

The Energy Department earlier said the cooling towers of the Leyte geothermal facilities of EDC tilted and the transformer suffered misalignment after the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Leyte on July 6.

“This is in addition to the earlier reported one unit each of both EDC’s Malitbog power plant and that of its wholly owned subsidiary Green Core Geothermal Inc. Tongonan Power Plant,” the company said.

The Department of Energy said Monday majority of areas in Region 8 and Bohol were receiving electricity 10 days after an earthquake devastated energy facilities in the areas.

Consolidated reports from the EDC, National Grid Corporation and the other distributors said the quake-hit areas in Leyte, Samar and Bohol were being supplied with 194 MW, or 76 percent of the recent 255-MW peak demand.

“The DoE assures the public that the energy family is working 24/7 to ensure that all energy facilities affected by the quake are repaired and brought back online to target the projected demand which could reach as high as 291 MW,” the department said.

The department aims to fully restore power in Samar, Leyte and Bohol not later than the end of the month.