EDC starts commercial operations of BacMan plants

Commercial operations of the Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal plants in the Bicol Region have resumed after five years following its successful rehabilitation by the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC). “For the past three to four weeks, Bacman units 1 and 2 have been generating energy during their testing and reliability runs,” said Richard Tantoco, EDC's president and chief operating officer, on Tuesday. “Both 55 MW units have been operating at full load since January 27 and February 11, respectively,” he added. Tantoco said the start of the plants’ commercial operations marks the full integration of EDC’s operations for the two 55-MW units of BacMan I. “We are very happy to have the plant back in service despite all the technical challenges we have encountered along the way.” Located in the towns of Bacon in Sorsogon province and Manito in Albay, BacMan consists of two plants—BacMan I comprises two 55-megawatt turbines while BacMan II has two 20-MW geothermal facilities. The plants were shut down in 2009. In May 2010, EDC, the country’s leading producer of geothermal energy, acquired the plants from the government with a winning bid of $28.25 million in an auction conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the agency tasked to handle the privatization of state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor). — KBK, GMA News