FirstGen charters world’s biggest aircraft to transport new transformer

MACTAN ISLAND, Cebu, Philippines - – The Ukraine-made strategic airlifter Antonov 225, the world’s largest aircraft, arrived here yesterday morning, marking its first ever landing in the Philippines.

Lopez-controlled FGP Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Gen Corp., chartered the aircraft to bring in a 150-ton replacement transformer from Croatia for FGP’s San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plant in Batangas City.

FGP brought in the equipment for a total cost of $7 million to ensure sufficient power supply and stability of the Luzon grid, especially at a time when other areas of the country are experiencing insufficient and unstable power supply.

In a press briefing, First Gen president Francis Giles Puno said with the equipment now in the country, the company hopes to re-commission the facility before the end of the year.

He said FGP would install the transformer on the company’s San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plant, a critical asset to the Luzon electrical grid system.

“The transformer raises electricity voltage produced by the generator from 16.5 kilovolts (kV) to 240 kV, thus enables the plant to deliver the electricity generated by the San Lorenzo Unit 60 through the transmission line network of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines,” FGP said.

Furthermore, FGP said it has tapped the help of an international team to speed up the delivery of the new transformer, which will replace a similar piece of equipment that caught fire a few months ago.

Puno said the fire, although immediately contained, rendered Unit 60 of San Lorenzo inoperable and resulted in the loss of half – or approximately 250 megawatts – of San Lorenzo’s 500-MW supply of electricity to the Luzon grid.

FGP said it considered all available airports that could land safely the aircraft. After considering the combination of airport, onward land transport and sea freight, Mactan Cebu was the most viable option, it said.