Coal plant delay due to blackout

DAVAO CITY—Aboitiz firm Therma South Inc. (TSI) has cited the April 5 blackout that plagued Mindanao as reason for the delay in the commissioning of Unit 2 of its coal-fired power plant in Barangay (village) Binugao in Toril district here.

The unit, with a capacity of 150 megawatts, would have been put online this month, but the power outage, which the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines attributed to a glitch in a switch in Agus in Lanao, damaged the facility’s boiler, TSI president and chief executive officer Benjie Cariaso Jr. said.

“The disruption damaged the auxiliary components of its boiler,” Cariaso said.

“The damage will delay the commercial operation of Unit 2 by about 10 months,” he said, pointing out that repair work on the boiler could last that long. Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao

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