BUSINESSES in Cagayan de Oro may worry not with the more than a month preventive maintenance shutdown (PMS) by the Steag State Power Inc. (SPI) in its two generation units coal fired power plant supplying a total of 210 megawatt (MW) power in Mindanao.
This is the assurance released by the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc. (OroChamber) to business establishments in the city even as it announces that the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company Inc. (Cepalco) was able to augment its existing back-power supply from Mindanao Energy (Minergy).
On October 6 to November 4, SPI would shutdown Unit 1, 105 MW (net), while Unit 2, also supplies 105 MW power (net) is scheduled on October 29 to November 10, 2012.
According to National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the impact to the grid is about three to 12 hours of rotating brownouts, depending on the backup power supply of utility companies and electric cooperatives.
In a statement, SPI said carrying out the maintenance works as planned and scheduled will bring back in long-term benefits to the Mindanao power consumers in terms the power plant’s operational reliability.
It added that the generation company’s Mindanao power plant has sustained an impressive availability rate of 93.3 percent and a low unplanned outage rate of less than one percent during its first six years of operation.
SPI’s power plant is considered as the most modern and the biggest in Mindanao on a per unit capacity. It has so far delivered more than 8.3 billion kilowatt hours (kWH) of electricity representing about 20 percent of Mindanao’s total power supply.
The planned PMS has been approved by the NGCP as recommended by the Mindanao Grid Operations and Maintenance Planning Group composed of the NGCP, National Power Corporation and its Independent Power Producers.
