BacMan geothermal facility now completely operational

MANILA, Philippines - All three units of the Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal plant in Albay are now fully operational after more than a year of intermittent operations due to problematic test results and maintenance shutdowns.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Lopez-owned BacMan owner Energy Development Corp. (EDC), said with all units now operational, “the facility is producing a gross output of approximately 130 megawatts.”

Claims filed against the contractors of the rehabilitation of the facility have also been settled after EDC filed an arbitration case before the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce.

EDC said it would discontinue the arbitration following the settlement of the claims.

“BacMan Geothermal Inc. (BGI) and EDC are pleased to announce that, as of today’s date, all claims under arbitration have now been settled with the contractor on terms satisfactory to BGI and EDC, and that the arbitration will be discontinued as a result. EDC looks forward to pursuing new opportunities with the Siemens group, and strengthening the commercial relationship between the two companies,” EDC said.

BGI is a subsidiary of EDC in charge of the BacMan plant.

On Nov. 28 last year, BGI commenced an arbitration administered by the International Court of arbitration in relation to its dispute with TurboCare Inc., now known as EthosEnergy TC Inc., and Siemens Inc., the contractors for the project.

BGI tapped the contractors in 2010 to carry out the rehabilitation of the BacMan Units 1 to 3 but disputes arose in relation to the carrying out the rehabilitation.

“The permanent fixes have now been completed on both BacMan Unit 2 and Unit 3, whilst BacMan Unit 1 will continue to operate with its interim solution until Dec. 27, 2014 when it will then be shut down to install the new steam turbine rotor from Toshiba. It is planned that BacMan Unit 1 will be returned to service by March 20, 2015,” EDC said.

In May 2010, EDC acquired the BacMan plant from the government with a winning bid of $28.25 million in an auction conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the agency tasked to handle the privatization of state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor).