EDC to shut down Negros power plant again

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The Energy Development Corp. (EDC) will again temporarily shut down its geothermal power plant in Negros Occidental from July to December this year while it conducts further technical studies for its viability.

In November last year, EDC also shut down this P8-billion Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant located in Brgy. Mailum Bago City for the same reason, but it re-operated this April.

NNGPP was originally envisioned to produce 49 megawatts of geothermal power, but presently, it only produces 8 to 9 MW which they sell to the Iloilo Electric Cooperative 1 (ILECO 1), EDC said.

Dwight Maxino, vice president for steam field operations of EDC's Northern Negros geothermal project, told the Negros Occidental Provincial Board during a hearing at the Capitol last Wednesday that the NNGPP will shut down in the first week of July to determine further where geothermal resources are within their bounds.

Maxino assured the PB that before 2011 ends, they could determine already the available power capacity from the NNGPP. "EDC will know by December how much power the geothermal plant will be able to produce, we do not have any figure at present," he said.

EDC also reported to the PB that, based on the assessment of 50 percent of the geophysical stations in the buffer zone, the geothermal resource can still sustain the operations of the NNGP plant even if the output is expected to be lower than 40 MW.

Francis Edward Bayon, EDC geothermal manager, however said: "Definitely, we can still operate the power plant despite the diminished resource capacity. We can only determine the exact available capacity after we have completed evaluation of all the geophysical stations before the year ends. In the meantime, we are looking at all options to address the lower level of geothermal resource."

Environmentalists, for their part, have protested EDC's entry into the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park (MKNP) buffer zone saying it has resulted in the cutting of trees and affected the rich biodiversity in the area.

The environmentalists have also expressed fear that with EDC's failure to generate enough geothermal steam to meet its targets, it would further encroach into the MKNP. But Maxino said, "It's not possible that we go beyond our boundaries. We will not go beyond the buffer zone based on law."

Manolo Candelaria, EDC deputy manager for sales, said the firm has already infused P8 billion in investments on NNGP, but it has been losing from it because of low power generation.

PB Member Emilio Yulo III said the PB will review the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Negros Occidental provincial government and the EDC, which is supposed to end in December this year.

The bottom line, he said, was that the people expect low cost of power with the EDC's geothermal power plant here, but added that he is inclined to oppose any further explorations at the buffer zone in case the firm would do it. –THE FREEMAN