Manila Standard Today
ITOGON—Energy Regulatory Commission has awarded the Certificate of Compliance to the 31.45-megawatt Unit 1 of SN Aboitiz Power-Benguet’s Binga Hydroelectric Power Plant amid blackouts expected to hit Luzon in five years.
Lawyer Mike Hosillos, SNAP B vice president for corporate affairs, said the new turbine replaced the 25-MW unit as part of upgrading the 100-MW Binga facility to 125 MW by next year.
According to him, the unit is second of four modules declared compliant since SNAP-Benguet embarked on a refurbishment program in 2010 enabling it contribute 62.5 MW to the Luzon Grid.
“Our rehabilitation program is right on track and we hope to complete the whole project within the next two years so that the Binga power plant will be fully operational,” Hosillos told Manila Standard.
“Unit 1’s refurbishment was completed in July 2012 while Unit 4 was completed in December 2011,” he said. “Work on the two remaining units is expected to begin early 2013 and completed by said year’s end.”
Binga HEPP, located in barangay Tinongdan in Itogon, was bidded out as a package in 2007 with Ambuklao HEPP through the power sector privatization program. SNAP-Benguet also began in 2008 the upgrading of Ambuklao which had been unused since 1999.
It restarted operations in October 2011 to produce 105 MW.
“We want to assure the public that we will be providing reliable and quality power for the grid,” Hosillos said, underscoring the urgency of acting now to avert shortages that could lead to blackouts in 2017.
Hosillos said SNAP is committed to maintain, operate and administer the Ambuklao and Binga for 25-year period subject to renewal for another 25 years under the administration’s public private partnership program. source
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