Ilijan gas plant ordered to run on liquid fuel

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MANILA — Ilijan natural gas-fired plant was required by the Depatment of Energy to run on liquid fuel from March 15 to April 15 in order to provide the much-needed power for the Luzon grid come summer.

The 1,200 megawatt plant along with two other gas facilities including the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo plants, are getting their power from the Malampaya gas field in offshore Palawan.

Ilijan plant, operated by Kepco Philippines will need to go on maintenance shutdown when the Malampaya also shuts down for maintenance works, making it the company’s first time to shift to liquid fuel.

“Because of the very tight supply, if they have to conduct maintenance, (they would have to) defer it and run because we need the additional capacity,” DOE Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada said.

She added that the cleaning process of the plant may also cause it to require additional downtime using bio diesel.

When this happens, more power generation loss may occur.

“Because of the very tight supply, if they have to conduct maintenance, (they would have to) defer it and run because we need the additional capacity,” DOE Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada said.

She also reiterated that the problem is not with the engine but with the reverting of the machines to the use of gas which will require them to clean the line.

“There is no problem in the engine, it is designed to run on both fuel. The problem is when they revert back to gas, they have to clean the line. The plant will not run slower (when it shifts to biodiesel (B2)), there is just the possibility of a longer cleaning time that is based on assumption… if you think of potential problems, you think of everything,” she said.