PGI to proceed with rehab of Makban power plants this month

The Philippine Geothermal Inc. (PGI) will proceed with its partial rehabilitation of the Makiling-Banahaw geothermal facility within this month.

In a press briefing over the weekend, National Power Corp. (Napocor) maintenance manager Efren San Sebastian said the rehabilitation was supposed to start last February but was stalled pending the approval of government authorities on the additional works that will be carried out after the partial rehab program.

"We will start the shutdown of Unit 1 in June 30 this year. This will signal the start of the rehabilitation. The three more units will be shutdown for repair in the next one and half months," San Sebastian said.

He said if everything will be done based on the approved timetable of Napocor’s engineering office, the commercial operation of the Makban facility will be on January 2004. The partial rehabilitation of the Makban geothermal facility, which will be funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, took effect on July 2002.

The partial rehabilitation will be complemented by additional works which will also be financed through the JBIC loan.

The Napocor board already approved the timetable for the additional works. By August 2003, it is expected to be approved by the board of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA). JBIC will then review and approve the additional works in the Makban facility by September this year.

The contract for the additional works will be awarded to Mitsubishi of Japan by the first week of October 2003.

Procurement, manufacturing and delivery of the equipment needed for the additional works will be completed by August 2004. The project is expected to be finished by January 2005.