Suweco eyes completion of Panay hydro plant

MANILA, Philippines - Renewable energy player Sunwest Water and Electric Co. Inc. (Suweco), an affiliate of the Sunwest Group of Companies, targets to complete its 9.4-megawatt Villasiga-2 hydropower plant in Panay Island in 2017.

“We hope to start (construction) within the end of the year. Hopefully, early 2017, it would already be operational,” said Suweco president Jose Silvestre Natividad in an interview on Friday.

Full construction of the P2-billion project is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.

Natividad said Suweco hopes to avail of the feed-in-tariff incentives for the project.

The FIT regime is a form of incentives for renewable energy players.

Feed-in tariffs offer cost-based compensation to renewable energy players among other perks.

Aside from Villasiga-2, Suweco also hopes to start the construction of a 6-MW Penablanca hydropower plant in Cagayan Valley.

“Hopefully, we can start with the construction of that next year and have it operational by 2017,” he said.

Suweco already started the construction of the access roads for the P1.1-billion Penablanca project.

In February, Suweco announced that it tapped a P4-billion syndicated loan facility to finance four hydropower projects that would have a total capacity of 31.9 megawatts.

These four projects include the Penablanca-Cayagan with 6.0 MW, Libacao-Aklan with 15 MW, Bansud-Mindoro with 1.5 MW and Bugasong-Antique with 9.5 MW.

Incorporated in 2005, Suweco aims to be a major supplier of clean renewable energy particularly in the rural areas that could not be reached by the national grid.

Suweco currently has a portfolio of 59 projects in different stages of development. These projects are expected to generate a total capacity of around 280MW in the next 10 years.

Suweco is part of the Sunwest Group of Companies owned by Legazpi-based businessman Elizaldy Co.