First Gen Corp. said it successfully brought back 250 megawatts of capacity in its 1,000-MW Sta. Rita combined cycle power plant in Batangas, after replacing a damaged transformer.
First Gen said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Wednesday that “Unit 20 of the 1,000-MW Sta. Rita power plant is now back in operation, following the replacement of the unit’s damaged main generator transformer with the spare main transformer.”
Unit 20 is a 250-MW unit out of four 250-MW units at Sta. Rita Power Plant of First Gas Power Corp., a subsidiary of First Gen.
First Gen earlier said it expected Unit 20 to return to operations by the first week of October.
First Gen said preliminary inspection and testing carried out on the Unit 2 transformer showed damage to internal components.
“To expedite the restoration of Unit 20, the damaged main transformer will be replaced with the same main transformer which is stored on site,” it said.
The company earlier said the unit was under scheduled maintenance outage from July 23 to Aug. 26 for works including maintenance activities.
First Gen owns and operates the Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants in Batangas which utilize natural gas from Malampaya field in northwest Palawan.
First Gen recently completed two new natural gas power plants located alongside the existing power plants in Batangas. These are the 97-MW Avion and 414-MW San Gabriel power plants.
“Both plants have already demonstrated the ability to operate and produce power at full [or even above full] capacity, which has benefited consumers as they ease the current supply tightness,” First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said earlier.