EDC investigating damage to geothermal assets in Leyte

Tongonan, Leyte Geothermal power plant, Philippines

Francisco Rojas 13 Nov 2013

First Gen President Francis Giles B. Puno said here on Tuesday that they are not only focused on bringing back the facilities to normal, but also aid in the relief missions and repair of transmission line towers that destroyed parts of Western Visayas region feared to have claimed 10,000 people.

“In our case some of our power plants were damaged in the storm. So we will have to go through a process of repairing all the damaged portions of the plants,” the top executive told reporters in a news conference during the arrival of the FGP Corp.’s 250-MW transformer at Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

“It’s not only our plants, but also the transmission line system, wherein you have a number of towers that basically were destroyed. So I think it will be a situation where the Lopez Group will be very proactive in assisting not only in the repair of our own assets, including our plants in Leyte, but also could extent possible where we can assist also in the relief efforts as an immediate step, and then also with respect to getting more power connected to the load centers,” he added.

Puno, likewise, said they would probably get assessments from other subsidiaries within the Lopez Group, including the construction company, to assist in repairing some of the transmission line towers downed by the strongest typhoon to ever hit not only the Philippines but also the world over.

While the company expects the report on the status of their plants to come out in the next day or two, he sees that they are “not badly damaged.” “Ultimately, we feel that will be repairable. So in the grasping of things, we could take care of that,” he noted.

Source: Roderick L. Abad via Business Mirror Website