EDC to Retrofit Palinpinon-1 Geothermal Power Plant in the Philippines, Raising Capacity to 126 MW

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 25, Energy Development Corporation (EDC) of the Philippines announced that it will carry out a modernization retrofit of the Palinpinon-1 geothermal power plant in Valencia, Negros Oriental. The project will replace the existing three 37.5 MW turbine-generator units with three 42 MW units, increasing the plant's installed capacity from 112.5 MW to 126 MW, an addition of 13.5 MW. The entire capacity expansion process requires no increase in geothermal steam extraction.

Palinpinon-1 was commissioned in 1983 and has been in continuous operation for more than 40 years. The plant is operated by Green Core Geothermal, Inc. within the EDC group. It currently has three 37.5 MW turbines with a total installed capacity of 112.5 MW, and together with Palinpinon-2 forms the Palinpinon geothermal power complex. In addition to increasing installed capacity, this retrofit will also extend the service life of core power generation equipment and improve the utilization efficiency of existing geothermal resources.

The core of this capacity expansion lies in leveraging existing steam supply conditions to increase output by replacing the turbine-generator units with more efficient and higher-capacity ones. Each of the three new units has a capacity of 42 MW, an increase of 4.5 MW per unit compared with the original units, creating a total of 13.5 MW of additional capacity. The project requires no new production wells or expanded steam extraction, which helps reduce the need for upstream geothermal resource development and new wellsite construction during the expansion process.

EDC currently has approximately 1,302.78 MW of installed geothermal power generation capacity and is one of the Philippines' major geothermal development operators. In addition to the Palinpinon project, the company also operates geothermal power plants including Tongonan, Upper Mahiao, Malitbog, Mahanagdong, Bac-Man, and Mindanao. First Gen recently also stated that it will continue to expand the power generation capacity of EDC's existing geothermal assets and has earmarked approximately 70 billion Philippine pesos in investment for the capacity expansion of related geothermal assets on Leyte Island.