EDC recommissions 9 MW of 49MW Northern Negros plant
Northern Negros Geothermal Field of EDC, Philippines (source: EDC)
Alexander Richter
7 Apr 2011
Philippine based Energy Development Corp. (EDC) is planning to restart its 49 MW Northern Negros geothermal power plant, having shut it down last November for more tests and an increase in steam production.
According to news from the Philippines, “Energy Development Corp. announced yesterday that it re-commissioned the Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant in Mailum, Bago City, for three months while validating data gathered from its technical tests.
In a disclosure at the Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said it completed studies on 61 percent of the geophysical stations at the Northern Negros area at the end of March, a government press release said.
“EDC would be conducting an initial assessment of the quality of data already gathered before resuming and completing the programmed survey,” the company said in the press release.
“While our technical personnel are undertaking an initial data analysis and evaluation, EDC shall implement activities in line with the optimization of the Pataan Production Sector by testing the combination of 3 existing production wells,” it added.
EDC said it has decided that it would be best to convert to electricity the geothermal steam generated during the testing and has re-commissioned the power plant as of Tuesday at 8.5 megawatts (gross).
“The power plant will be operated for only a limited period of time, approximately three months. The geophysical testing will resume as soon as our technical team concludes its evaluation of the survey data already collected,” the press release said.
EDC temporarily shut down its Northern Negros plant, which has a capacity to deliver 49 MW, in November last year to conduct more technical tests.
Earlier, the company said it needed to shut down the power plant and steam field “while technical studies are being conducted.”
Energy Development reported a decline in steam production since 2008 due to calcite mineral clogging of wells in the geothermal field.”
Source: GMA News, Visayan Daily Star
