Bohol power shortage hydro power plant in Loboc proposed

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – Construction of another hydro power plant at Loboc River was proposed by Next Power Consortium Incorporated, but this has been described as only a “band-aid solution to the looming power shortage in Bohol.

Provincial Board Member Gerry Garcia (2nd district) said: “We already have the Loboc River Hydro Plant, which is operating at 5 megawatts or less. If you will put a downstream turbine, it will lessen the capacity, and Bohol has a demand of 60mW. So probably, it cannot help a lot on our power requirement.”

Garcia, an engineer by profession, said he did not object to the proposal of NPCI, headed by Cyril del Callar, former president of the National Power Corporation, but he doubted that a downstream turbine can generate more than 5 mW.

He also reminded his PB colleagues to consider Loboc River as a tourist area. “Social responsibility activities have to be done once the proposal prospered. So probably, this project will not take-off sooner as we expected.”

The proposed new hydro power plant will be located just below the existing hydro plant in the river, owned by Sta Clara Company.

PB Member Elpidio Jala, for his part, said the project would cost P500 million. He told the PB that it is “a cascading plant, which means that NPCI will construct one turbine, then another turbine. They can construct even five turbines so that if the megawatt is not enough for power generation in the province, they would just add another turbine.”

The construction of a hydro plant using the turbine is a new technology from Australia that “needs only a little water to generate this particular turbine,” said Jala, adding that it would take about two years to complete the construction.

Earlier, the PB approved a measure requesting agencies to interconnect power from Cebu to Bohol via an undersea cable.

Loboc river has already two hydro power plants. There’s the Sevilla hydro aside from existing hydro in Loboc river.

Bohol is served by a combined 20 mW power from the two hydro plants and another (hydro) in Balilihan town and the Bohol diesel power plant. The province needs more than 60 mW during peak hours, according to power distributors in Bohol.