By Joann Villanueva
Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella has discounted another yellow alert status for the Luzon grid today, October 16, as maintenance works on the Malampaya gas field in offshore Palawan was expected to end.
“We don’t see any yellow alert status for tomorrow because of the additional 1,620 MW (megawatts) from the natural gas plants,” he told journalists in a Viber message Tuesday, October 15.
“We expect the completion of Malampaya maintenance today, 15 October 2019. Once gas supply is available, Ilijan Blocks A and B (2 x 600MW) and San Gabriel (420 MW) will be operation starting tomorrow,” he added.
The Malampaya gas field was on maintenance shutdown since October 12, 2019.
Yellow alert was again raised in the Luzon grid on Monday due to large power supply deficiency partly due to the Malampaya maintenance shutdown.
Forced outage for the day affected capacity reaching 1,163 megawatts (MW) based on the total installed capacity of five power plants that include the Sual coal-fired power plant.
Team Energy Corporation’s (TEC) 647 MWs have been on forced outage due to condenser tube leak since last October 11.
Fuentebella said “Sual Unit 1, as per their report yesterday, (said) they are targeting to complete the repair and ‘washing’ of turbine by 21 or 22 October 2019.”
“PMS (preventive maintenance schedule) of Sual Unit 2, which is scheduled to start on 19 October 2019 and end on 17 November 2019, will be moved until Unit 1 is available and stable,” he added. (First published by PNA, Oct. 15, 2019)
