AP Renewables Inc. and partner Philippine Geothermal Production Co. Inc. started rehabilitating the geothermal wells of the Tiwi-MakBan geothermal complex to increase steam production.
“We have started looking at rehabilitating some wells in Tiwi. I think we’re already seeing some of the output,” Aboitiz Power Corp. chief operating officer Manny Rubio said.
He said while some of the rehabilitated wells had started producing additional steam, there was no significant increase in power generation to date.
Rubio said AP Renewables and PGPC signed the contact to drill 12 new production wells over a six-year period. “It’s 12 wells, 50 MW. We signed that contract,” Rubio said.
The parties signed a geothermal resources supply and services agreement in August 2018 for the supply of steam and drilling of new production wells in the geothermal complex to ensure the long-term operations of the two renewable power plant facilities.
Under the agreement, PGPC will drill 12 new production wells within six years to increase steam availability for the facilities by about 20 percent. The agreement also ensures a more competitive fuel pricing in the long term.
AP Renewables, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power, operates the 458-MW MakBan geothermal power plants that straddle the provinces of Batangas and Laguna and the 289-MW Tiwi geothermal power plants in Albay.
PGPC, the pioneer in the commercial development of geothermal energy in Southeast Asia, is the steam field operator and geothermal resource provider of the power plants.
First commissioned in 1979, the Tiwi-MakBan Geothermal Complex is one of the biggest geothermal facilities in the country and the region.
Aboitiz Power took over the operations and management of the power plants from the state-owned National Power Corp. in 2009.