| Abstract |
The Tongonan I Production Field (TIPF) in Kananga, Leyte started supplying 112.5 MW of geothermal power on June 29, 1983. At the onset, this was more than sufficient to supply the needs of Leyte and its neighboring provinces, and the vast potential of the TIPF and its neighboring fields went virtually untapped for many years. However, with the power interconnection of Leyte with the islands of Luzon and Cebu, opportunities to fully utilize the geothermal resource emerged. The first opportunity that came was additional power generation. This was made possible through the addition of a Topping Plant and minor changes in the FCDS piping, collectively known as the Tongonan I Topping Cycle (TITC). With the TITC, an additional 17.5MW was generated with minimal investment cost. The next opportunity was the potential to share steam with other power plants through the Leyte Steamline Interconnection, or Steam Highway. At any time, TIPF can dispatch 40 MW for use by any of the other power plants connected to the Steam Highway. This resulted not only in increased power generation of the whole Leyte Geothermal Production Field, it also increased field and FCDS utilization, and allowed PNOC-EDC to defer the drilling of additional wells. In Tongonan I, we have seen that it is possible to engineer solutions to optimize production and utilization of an existing geothermal production field facility. Opportunities for optimization of other existing geothermal power production may lie in the addition of Topping/Bottoming cycles or in the interconnection of existing facilities in a geothermal steamfield. |