12 MW expansion of Maibarara geothermal plant to be online December 2017
Maibarara 12 MW expansion groundbreaking event, October 2016 (source: PetroEnergy)
Alexander Richter
30 Oct 2017
Maibarara Geothermal expects to start commercial operation of its 12 MW expansion in December 2017.
Maibarara Geothermal Inc. said its 12 MW geothermal expansion project in Batangas is on track to meet the December target for commercial operation. The expansion will bring Maibarara’s total capacity to 32 MW.
MGI power plant manager Paul Morala said the company, along with National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, installed the revenue meter of Maibarara-2 on September 30, 2017.
He said Maibarara and Manila Electric Co. engineers successfully completed on October 24 the testing of Maibarara-2’s protection relays and circuit breakers.
“We commend the highly professional and helpful cooperation we have received from NGCP and Meralco. We anticipate such cooperation to continue and to extend as well to other agencies such as the DoE (Department of Energy), ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission), and PEMC (Philippine Electricity Market Corp.) as the unit’s commissioning and testing enter their final phases,” Morala said.
Maibarara’s existing 20 MW Unit-1 in Sto, Tomas, Batangas, meanwhile, reached its 600 GWh generation mark during the billing period ending October 25.
Maibarara said the milestone was achieved three years and eight months from the start of the facility’s commercial operation on February 8, 2014.
“Apart from the scheduled annual maintenance shutdowns, we have managed to minimize forced outages in the facility leading to very high capacity and availability factors,” Maibarara president Francisco Delfin Jr. said.
PetroGreen Energy Corp. owns 65 percent of Maibarara, while Phinma Energy Corp. holds a 25-percent interest. PNOC Renewables Corp. owns 10 percent. PetroGreen is the renewable energy holding company of publicly-listed PetroEnergy Resources Corp.
The first phase of the Maibarara project was the first geothermal power station built in Luzon in 16 years and the first renewable energy project declared commercial by the Energy Department under the Renewable Energy Law of 2008.
Source: The Standard
