Alstom Bags BacMan Repair Contract

MANILA, Philippines - European firm Alstom has bagged the contract for the repair of the 150-megawatt (MW) Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal facility of the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corporation.

"EDC has awarded the repair of both Unit 1 and Unit 2 generator rotors to Alstom," the company has noted in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange; adding that since Alstom owns the ABB design which was the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the generator, it would be able to "significantly reduce risks."

The Lopez firm emphasized that it issued "notice to proceed" on the works to Alstom last February 15.

EDC said the Unit 1 generator will have to be shipped to the Alstom Stafford facility in United Kingdom, "where it will be fully inspected and rewound with new copper wirings." Repair work on Unit 2, the company added, will follow "in due time."

The new timeline given by the Lopez company as to the completion of repair works will be latter part of the third quarter of 2012.

The Bacon-Manito geothermal facility was acquired in September 2010 by the Lopez firm via the government's power privatization program implemented by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation.

When it was finally transferred to its domain, the company planned for the facility's rehabilitation with goals of ramping up its capacity so it can contribute to the power supply needs of both the Luzon and Visayas grids.

The interconnection of the Luzon and Visayas grids was seen by the facility owner as an opportunity because it can sell its capacity in either jurisdiction, depending on which grid will be short of power supply.

EDC officials noted that the 2012 completion of the repair works for the facility is still consistent with the baseline assumptions they have set when they acquired the asset from the government.

Initial assessments indicated that the company could still uprate the generating capacity of the plants to 130 megawatts, a little close to installed capacity.