MANILA, Aug. 4 (PNA) -– First Gen Corporation’s (FGC’s) subsidiary, Prime Meridian Powergen Corporation (PMPC), has signed on Friday the 97 Megawatts (MWs) supply contract with Istroenergo Group (IEG), to execute the construction of the Avion Power Plant’s aeroderivate gas turbine.
Based on a disclosure with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Monday, the IEG will function as the engineering contractor of PMPC to start the aeroderivative gas turbine power plants in the Avion Power Plant in Batangas City to open on April 2015.
The plant will utilize the General Electric’s LM6000 PC Sprint aeroderivative gas turbines, which has the capability to process both natural gas or liquid fuel to electricity.
GE has a team dedicated to check the Aeroderivative Balance of a Power Plant, which makes their product more reliable, since the company knows firsthand what the common problems of the equipment are, making them improve their product in the process.
The advantages on GE’s Aeroderivative Balance of Plant said, indicated in the company’s website, “the team offers decades of experience providing Balance of Plant equipment, optimized to meet Aeroderivative gas turbine requirements.”
The Aeroderivative Gas Turbine varies from Industrial Gas Turbines through its higher fuel efficiency and lower carbon emissions, yet is smaller and more expensive.
Designed after jet engines, the aeroderivative gas turbine has a compression ratio of 30:1, allowing it to have a higher mechanical energy coming from the air-fuel mixture, compared to the industrial gas turbines 18:1 compression ratio.
Simply, higher compression ratios allow the equipment to use up less fuel through the process of longer expansions of the combustion chamber.
Moreover, the Avion Power Plant amounts to 150 million USD and will be located near the First Gen’s 1000 MW Santa Rita and 500 MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plants.
On the other hand, since 1992, Slovakian-based IEG has been engaged in the latest technologies related to fossil fuels utilization to its conversion of electric and thermal energy.
Similarly, FGC is engaged in power generation, under the Lopez-led First Philippines Holdings Corporation and has solely earned 67.3 million USD in the first quarter of 2014.
Meanwhile, the opening of the power plant will alleviate the reserve lows projected in the summer months from March to May of 2015, which is noted by the Department of Energy (DOE) at around 400-500 Megawatts this summer. (PNA)