Aboitiz unit Hedcor to put up more hydro power plants in Benguet

MANILA, Philippines - Hedcor Inc., a power generation unit of the Aboitiz Group, is putting up more hydroelectric power plant projects in Benguet, a top company official said.

Company president Rene Ronquillo told reporters over the weekend that they plan to put up a total of 120 megawatt of hydropower plant capacity in the area in the next few years.

“We are focusing our attention on our Benguet projects. These are four small projects totaling 120 MW,” he said.

He said they are now conducting feasibility studies on the projects and in the next two years, would be securing permit. Another two years will be needed for the actual construction of the hydro facilities.

The Hedcor official said the projects will come on stream in time for the projected increase in demand in the next four to five years.

He said they have asked the Department of Energy to consider these projects as renewable energy ventures to allow them incentives provided under the Renewable Energy Act.

Hedcor earlier planned on putting up only a 35-40 MW hydropower plant in Kapangan, Benguet.

But Ronquillo said when one of its hydropower projects in Mindanao encountered licensing problems, the Aboitiz Group decided to focus on the proposed Benguet-based power facilities.

Hedcor is a leading producer of clean energy and is the largest developer of run-of-river hydropower in the Philippines. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Philippine HydroPower Corp. and was formed in 2005 with the merger of three Aboitiz hydropower subsidiaries that have been in operation for more than 20 years: Benguet Hydro Corp., Hydro Electric Development Corp., and Northern Mini Hydro Corp.

The hydropower company currently manages 13 mini-hydropower plants in Benguet, 10 of which are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001-certified and are owned and operated by the company.

The other three are the Asin plants owned by the city government of Baguio and operated by Hedcor through a 20-year contract which started in 1986. The company also owns five hydropower plants in Davao.

Four of these plants are the Talomo generating facilities acquired by the company last March 2004 through the first ever successful bid conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.

Through its 50 percent ownership in Luzon Hydro Corp., Hedcor operates and manages the 70-megawatt Bakun AC hydro project located in Alilem, Ilocos Sur. The $150-million Bakun Plant went onstream on October 2000 and is under the government’s build-operate-transfer scheme. The plant is rated to generate 217 gigawatt-hours of power annually and its energy produced is delivered and taken up by National Power Corp. (Napocor) and dispersed to its Luzon power grid for distribution.

Hedcor now operates about 19 hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 113 MW and an average generation of 354 gigawatt-hours of clean energy annually.