Fire hits Cebu power plant; operations to stop for 6 days

CEBU CITY—Korean Electric Company (Kepco) power plant in Naga City, Cebu may have to temporarily stop operating starting Saturday night after fire hit the crusher building of the power plant complex 5:20 a.m. on Saturday.

A source from Kepco said the fire damaged their transfer tower located at the crusher building of the power plant.

The transfer tower is where the coal passes through a conveyor belt to the generation units.

Kepco statement said the repair on the damage would take about six days.

Fire investigators in Naga were still checking the cause of the fire and the extent of the damage.

Kepco has two power plants in Naga City that produce 100 megawatts of power each.

Initial investigation showed that the fire broke at Kepco’s crusher building about 5:20 a.m. and was  put out at 8 a.m.

A source at Kepco told the Inquirer that they had to stop operating Saturday afternoon when Kepco had fed all standby coal to the power plants in order to start the repair.

The first plant was expected to go offline at 5 p.m. while the other plant, at 10 p.m.

The crusher building where the transfer tower is located feeds coal to their power plant.

The source said Kepco had informed the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to look for other sources of power since Kepco was expected to go offline for six days because it would take that long to repair the transfer tower.

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