Mak-Ban showcases RP-US cooperation

BITIN, LAGUNA — The Mak-Ban Geothermal Power Plant (MBGPP) complex is one of the best examples of Philippine-American cooperation.

Thus declared Reynaldo Santiago, National Power Corp. (NPC) Genco 6 vice president, during an on-site project briefing for US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone.

The Mak-Ban complex is one of two major geothermal facilities jointly developed and operated by Napocor and Philippine Geothermal Inc. (PGI), a subsidiary of US-based Unocal Corp. The other is in Tiwi, Albay.

With the ambassador was his wife Marie and daughter Chiara, and commercial officer Val Huston, deputy economic counselor Dan Martinez, and senior commercial specialist Cleo Alday.

The Mak-Ban steamfields were explored by Unocal and PGI in 1974 and subsequently developed under contract with Napocor. Commercial operation commenced in 1979, with an initial capacity of 110 megawatts, which was increased over time to 426 MW.

During the briefing, Virgilio Navarro, Napocor-MBGPP group manager, outlined the historical highlights of the plant’s generation, from the initial commissioning of Mak-Ban 1 in September 1979, up to the operation of Mak-Ban 10 in May 1996, when the combined capacity of 410 MW was achieved. Another 16 MW from the Ormat binary plant was added in 1994.

According to Navarro, Mak-Ban posted its highest availability factor in 1990 at 92.98 percent, with plant capacity at 87.8 percent.

To emphasize the need to rehabilitate the aging geothermal complex, he said Mak-Ban’s availability factor, as of end-2001, was only 81.56 percent, almost a historical low, while plant capacity was 62.58 percent.

Mak-Ban and the Tiwi plant are set for rehabilitation starting end of this year, to bring them back to their optimum capacity.