Exergy participated yesterday (April 26) at the inauguration ceremony of EDC's first geothermal brine recovery power plant held in Brgy. Ilomavis in Kidapawan City, Cotabato province.
The new ORC unit was synchronized to the Mindanao electricity grid on March 12 then passed compliance testing by system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on March 25 and it is now delivering 3.6 MW of carbon-free electricity to the grid.
EDC Deputy Chief Operating Officer Jerome H. Cainglet who took part at the ceremony commented:
"The M3 binary plant is part of EDC's commitment to continuously power the Mindanao region's growing economy with 100% clean energy to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels such as coal that have primarily caused our warming planet".
In fact, aside from providing clean and reliable power to the Mindanao grid, the project will also avoid around 25,000 tons of equivalent carbon dioxide yearly using geothermal energy.
The Exergy ORC unit was designed and supplied in less than 12 months complying with strict deadlines. As emphasized by EDC, "the power plant expansion started construction in the first part of 2021 - and that was the height of the coronavirus pandemic, hence, the safety protocols needed for workers on-site had been strictly enforced and heightened. Yet despite that, the completion of the binary plant was still well-within timeframe".
While attending the inauguration ceremony Marco Frassinetti, Exergy's Sales Director commented:
"We are very proud of the successful completion of the first brine recovery power plant in the Philippines for EDC. This project demonstrates how pushing innovation, both in exploitation technologies and power plant design and technologies, can provide more sustainable and efficient solutions to better harness geothermal resources and improve the economics of geothermal projects"
The ORC cycle operates recovering the heat from the geothermal brine available from EDC's 103-MW Mindanao 1 & 2 existing steam power plants and converts it into electricity through the Radial Outflow Turbine. Heat from the brine is then re-injected back to the reservoir.
The new ORC installation will enhance the efficiency and productivity of the existing geothermal field without any additional environmental impact.
