Wärtsilä has signed a four-year extension to its operation and maintenance (O&M) agreement with PhilGold Processing and Refining Corp (PGPRC), a gold mining operation in the Philippines.

The company’s Masbate mine is dependent upon its own power plant to provide the electricity needed to run its operations, and reliability of supply is mission critical, according to Wärtsilä.
Wärtsilä has run and maintained the plant since 2009, delivering reliability through high plant availability, and enabling PGPRC to consistently meet its production targets. The extension to the agreement was placed with Wärtsilä in June 2019.

The remotely located plant operates on three 18-cylinder and two 16-cylinder Wärtsilä Vasa 32 engines and one 12-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 engine, and has a total power output of 36.93 MW. The plant is located around 360 km southeast of the country’s capital, Manila. There is no connection to the grid, and the island-mode plant is the sole provider of energy to the mine.

Eugene Occena, Process Plant Manager, PGPRC, said: “For the past 10 years Wärtsilä has operated and maintained our power plant, which has freed us up to concentrate on our main business of mining. They have carried out this work with the utmost efficiency and have tailored the agreement to meet our specific needs and wishes.”

Erwin Vanderkerff, Director, Service unit Australasia, Wärtsilä Energy Business, said: “For PGPRC the adjusted agreement means O&M at set cost with no surprises, and technical support always at hand. In this we utilise Wärtsilä Expertise Centre for providing remote operational support and extensive technical support.

“The customer’s evolving requirements have been answered to by the further customised scope of the agreement. Performance guarantees covering heat rate and annual availability of the power plant have been defined. The extended agreement creates peace of mind for PGPRC, and it can concentrate in its core business.”

In the Philippines, Wärtsilä has altogether 2,000 MW of installed power capacity, of which 110 MW is operated and maintained by Wärtsilä under O&M agreements.