EDC restores another unit of Leyte power plant

MANILA, Philippines - Lopez-owned geothermal firm Energy Development Corp. (EDC) has restarted another unit of its Malitbog power plant in Leyte as part of the restoration of the Unified Leyte Power Plant Complex, the single biggest source of electricity in the Visayas, which was damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday, EDC said the company has been able to run another unit, allowing the plant to produce an additional capacity of 75 megawatts.

“EDC has successfully energized another unit of the Malitbog power plant, with an additional capacity of 75 MW. Said unit is now on start-up mode and under reliability and other tests,” EDC said.

In early January, EDC was also able to restore the first unit with a capacity of 75 MW in coordination with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the country’s power transmission operator.

The company also earlier restored the Tongonan power plant in addition to the previously restored Upper Mahiao and Leyte optimization plants.

The Unified Leyte plants consist of the 130-megawatt Upper Mahiao, 232-MW Malitbog, 180-MW Mahanagdong and 112.5-Tongonan power plants.

EDC has targeted to dispatch 147 MW of capacity from the Unified Leyte units into the Visayas grid by the end of 2013.

In late November, EDC has partially re-commissioned the plant and was able to dispatch 57 MW into the Visayas grid after successful reliability runs.

Because of the damage sustained by its facilities, EDC has formally written the National Power Corp. (Napocor) regarding the force majeure provisions of its power purchase agreement.