PCPC continues operation at 135MW

Showing the dependability of the power plant and highlighting the prompt action of its all-Filipino Operations and Maintenance (O&M) team, the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) power facility is now back online with full capacity baseload power supply.

For the first quarter of the year, PCPC focused on the capacity restoration of its Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion power plant unit back to 135MW capacity.

Since the turnover of the O&M by The First Northeast Electric Power Engineering Corp. (NEPC) to PCPC last 2021, PCPC has been running the power plant and providing reliable supply with a trained and high-skilled all-Filipino team.

“We commit to reliability, and this is what we aim to provide for our customers and stakeholders,” Mr. Albino C. Kintanar, PCPC Vice President for O&M said.

Opportunity works

For most of the repair activity, the O&M focused on fixing the air preheater tube leakages. The leakages caused the reduction of the power capacity of the power plant.

During the repair, opportunity works such as the maintenance of turbine and auxiliaries and boiler and auxiliaries were also done to take advantage of the power plant outage.

The positive result of the opportunity and repair works at the power facility is also attributed to the technology used by the O&M Team. In the previous maintenance activities, PCPC used a gondola, or an elevator-type enclosure suspended from the air.

According to one of the performance engineers, the gondola was “effective but may be limiting in checking the whole furnace area simultaneously for repair.” Hence, for 2022, PCPC used scaffolding or a staging structure that is easier to modify. In terms of coverage, it allows thorough inspection of the entire boiler surface.