First Gas assures continued operation despite Malampaya shutdown
The Philippine Star 10/10/2006
First Gas Corp. (FGC) has assured the public that it would continue the operations of its power plants despite the scheduled platform maintenance of the Malampaya project this November.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, FGC said the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500- MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power facilities will not cease operations despite the natural gas supply interruption during the scheduled maintenance of the Malampaya natural gas pipeline from Nov.18 to Dec. 12, 2006.
FGC vice chairman and chief executive officer Peter D. Garrucho Jr. said contrary to news reports indicating otherwise, "we would like to assure the general public that the First Gas power facilities consisting of the MW Santa Rita and San Lorenzo power plants will continue to deliver power during the scheduled Malampaya shutdown in November to December of this year.
Garrucho explained that both power plants were designed to operate on a wide variety of liquid fuels.
The FGC official also noted that these power plants are equipped with adequate liquid fuel storage facilities to enable uninterrupted and continued power generation during natural gas supply interruptions, regardless of whether the disruption is anticipated or not."
He also stressed that all measures have already been undertaken to ensure that sufficient quantities of liquid fuel will be available during the scheduled Malampaya maintenance period to augment the existing fuel inventory.
First Gas Power Corp. and FGP Corp., the operating companies of the Santa Rita and San Lorenzo plants, respectively, are subsidiaries of publicly-listed FGC.
For its part, Kepco Ilijan Corp. said they would shut down the 1,200-mw Ilijan natural gas power plant, a joint venture of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and Korea Electric and Power Corp. (Kepco).
A Kepco official said they would use another Napocor plant to augment the power requirement once the shutdown starts. "Napocor has verbally advised us to get ready (with Malaya) if there is a need to run it."
Malaya, a 650-MW bunker plant located in Pililla, Rizal, is on an economic shutdown since January this year due to the excess capacity in the Luzon grid.
"We might run to it as an additional capacity due to the shutdown of the 1,200-MW Ilijan plant," the Kepco official said.
He said the start-up of Malaya diesel-fired power facility will take about three days. "If Ilijan is shut down on a Friday, then we will start up Malaya on a Monday and it will be operating by Wednesday."
The government had earlier said that it is looking at the possibility of temporarily halting the operation of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) to prevent prices at the electricity market from shooting up as the power demand and supply scenario might be affected by the expected shutdown of the three natural gas power plants.
But Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) president Lasse Holopainen said they are still studying this option if the operators of the gas-fired power plants would not be able to come up with an alternative fuel source.
With FGC’s assurance, though, it was not clear if the PEMC would still consider the proposed shutdown of WESM for the period covered by the temporary maintenance of the said facilities.
First Gas Corp. (FGC) has assured the public that it would continue the operations of its power plants despite the scheduled platform maintenance of the Malampaya project this November.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, FGC said the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500- MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power facilities will not cease operations despite the natural gas supply interruption during the scheduled maintenance of the Malampaya natural gas pipeline from Nov.18 to Dec. 12, 2006.
FGC vice chairman and chief executive officer Peter D. Garrucho Jr. said contrary to news reports indicating otherwise, "we would like to assure the general public that the First Gas power facilities consisting of the MW Santa Rita and San Lorenzo power plants will continue to deliver power during the scheduled Malampaya shutdown in November to December of this year.
Garrucho explained that both power plants were designed to operate on a wide variety of liquid fuels.
The FGC official also noted that these power plants are equipped with adequate liquid fuel storage facilities to enable uninterrupted and continued power generation during natural gas supply interruptions, regardless of whether the disruption is anticipated or not."
He also stressed that all measures have already been undertaken to ensure that sufficient quantities of liquid fuel will be available during the scheduled Malampaya maintenance period to augment the existing fuel inventory.
First Gas Power Corp. and FGP Corp., the operating companies of the Santa Rita and San Lorenzo plants, respectively, are subsidiaries of publicly-listed FGC.
For its part, Kepco Ilijan Corp. said they would shut down the 1,200-mw Ilijan natural gas power plant, a joint venture of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and Korea Electric and Power Corp. (Kepco).
A Kepco official said they would use another Napocor plant to augment the power requirement once the shutdown starts. "Napocor has verbally advised us to get ready (with Malaya) if there is a need to run it."
Malaya, a 650-MW bunker plant located in Pililla, Rizal, is on an economic shutdown since January this year due to the excess capacity in the Luzon grid.
"We might run to it as an additional capacity due to the shutdown of the 1,200-MW Ilijan plant," the Kepco official said.
He said the start-up of Malaya diesel-fired power facility will take about three days. "If Ilijan is shut down on a Friday, then we will start up Malaya on a Monday and it will be operating by Wednesday."
The government had earlier said that it is looking at the possibility of temporarily halting the operation of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) to prevent prices at the electricity market from shooting up as the power demand and supply scenario might be affected by the expected shutdown of the three natural gas power plants.
But Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) president Lasse Holopainen said they are still studying this option if the operators of the gas-fired power plants would not be able to come up with an alternative fuel source.
With FGC’s assurance, though, it was not clear if the PEMC would still consider the proposed shutdown of WESM for the period covered by the temporary maintenance of the said facilities.
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