MGI geothermal plant in Sto. Tomas, Batangas now producing 600 GWh
By Lenie Lectura – October 30, 2017
from Business Mirror
MAIBARARA Geothermal Inc. (MGI) said on Monday its 20-megawatt (MW) unit-1 geothermal-power plant in Santo Tomas, Batangas, reached its 600-gigaWatt-hour (GWh) generation mark on October 25.
This milestone was achieved three years and eight months from the start of the facility’s commercial operation on February 8, 2014.
“Apart from the scheduled annual-maintenance shutdowns, we have managed to minimize forced outages in the facility leading to very high capacity and availability factors,” MGI President FG Delfin Jr. said.
MGI is 65-percent owned by PetroGreen Energy Corp. (PGEC), 25 percent by Phinma Energy and 10 percent by PNOC Renewables Corp. PGEC is the renewable-energy holding firm of publicly listed PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC).
At the time it was put on line to the Luzon grid, Maibarara-1 was the first geothermal-power station built in Luzon in 16 years, and the first renewable-energy project declared commercial by the Department of Energy under the framework of the 2008 renewable-energy law.
The Maibarara-1 plant was also recently declared as the Best Renewable Energy Project in the national grid category of the Asean Energy Awards 2017, held during the Asean Energy Ministers Meeting in Manila in September 2017.
MGI’s expansion project, the 12 MW Maibarara-2, is currently being finished to meet its target commercial operation by December this year.
MGI Power Plant Manager Paul Morala said the power firm and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) installed the revenue meter of Maibarara-2 on September 30.
MGI and Meralco engineers jointly completed on October 24 the testing of Maibarara-2’s protection relays and circuit breakers.
The unit’s SCADA system and Direct Transfer Trip function passed MGI and Meralco testing.
“We commend the highly professional and helpful cooperation we have received from NGCP and Meralco.
We anticipate such cooperation to continue and to extend, as well, to other agencies, such as the Department of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Philippine Electricity Marketing Corp. as the unit’s commissioning and testing enter their final phases,” Morala said.
