Introduction

Through field trips and seminars, students are able to acquire more knowledge
and be familiar with the things that are related to their course. For this mere reason, the
University of Batangas Mechanical Engineering Department provides high standard of
learning to the students with the incorporation of educational field trips. The tour was
proposed to give the students a chance to see the different types of plants and
companies where the service of a mechanical engineer is very much needed. By
conducting the educational tour, the students will be more knowledgeable not only for
their subject but for their course itself.

The Narrative
Last October 12-16, 2015, we, the 5 th year Mechanical Engineering students of
University of Batangas had an educational trip to have a tour in different plants and
industries and also venture the famous tourist spots the North has to offer.

We first went to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, and here I learned the term
nuclear fission. Nuclear fission occurs when a neutron collides with a nucleus of a
large atom such as Uranium and is absorbed into it causing the nucleus to become
unstable and thus split into two smaller more stable atoms with the release of more
neutrons and a considerable amount of energy. The Fission produces radioactive
materials thus making it risky to enter this generation system but despite we have our
immunity on radioactivity not exceeding it every year we can still work on such
environment. I observed that despite never having been commissioned to use, the plant

has

remained

maintained,

intact

including

and
the

well

nuclear

reactor. They are ought to maintain it

for the Government actually give
funds for its maintenance. It is welldesigned compared to other nuclear
plant

like

the

Chernobyl

and

Fukishima Nuclear power plant.

At the heart of the plant is the
massive nuclear reactor. Protected by
a domed structure made of 1 meterthick concrete and 1.5 meters of steel,
it

was

supposed

megawatts

of

to

provide

625

clean

energy.

The

reactor has since been dismantled,

inoperable without the fuel, which has
been sold to Siemens in 1997. No radioactive material exists in the site, according to
Marcelo.
The next plant is the One Subic Power Generation Corporation, which is a diesel
power plant. The Subic power plant is an oil fired power plant having an installed
capacity of 110 MVA composed of 8 combustion-type generators which contribute 14.5
MVA each. The personnel said that one of the generators is not which yielded to lower
capacity of the plant. Each of the combustion generators is composed of 18 valves

which are periodically maintained and inspected. The generators generates 13.8 kV
which is then to be step up to 230 kV by two 55 MVA transformers to be fed on the
transmission line grid. The personnel said that one of the most challenging part of their
work there as the operations engineer was when the grid demands supply from them,
when the supply in spot market is insufficient, he said that there were times that they
needed to run the plant continuously in order to meet the demand from the grid.
We also got to visit the Agua Grande Mini Hydro Power Plant, which can produce
1000 kW of power. The Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative has commissioned a study on
the hydro plant along with one another. The plants were constructed during the Marcos
years and has a power generation capacity of 4.5 megawatt, which can supply electric
power to some 17,000 households in Pagudpud and nearby villages in Pasuquin and
Bacarra.
The

last

one

is

the

Bangui

Windmills. The Bangui Wind Mills were

built

by

the

NorthWind

Power

Development Corporation to take its

share in reducing the emission of harmful
greenhouse

gases

(GHGs)

causing

global warming and to accelerate the

rural electrification of the government.

The windmills, officially referred to as the North Wind Bangui Bay Project, was
built to use renewable energy sources, thus reducing the greenhouse gases that cause

global warming. The project is the first

Wind

Farm

in

the

Philippines

consisting of wind turbines on-shore

facing the South China Sea and
considered to be the biggest in
Southeast Asia. The project sells
electricity to the Ilocos Norte Electric
Cooperative (INEC) and provides 40%
of the power requirements of Ilocos Norte via Transco Laoag.

The Reaction
As for my own point of view, I think that the field trip was very informative
because as we go along from place to place, our tour guide keeps on telling us
everything related to a particular place. He is in fact very knowledgeable that he is able
to relate everythng he said to our course and in that alone we already gain informations.
The other thing is that we, as students, need to see for ourselves the real thing about
power generation by nuclear, diesel, wind and water means. And in that 4-day field trip,
we were able to explore and saw with our own two eyes real plants and their
components. The field trip was very successful and very satisfying and I really had a
great time spending these very special moments with my friends, classmates,
batchmates and our beloved instructors. Indeed a very epic 4-day educational field trip.