Written by Madelaines B. Miraflor Published on 14 March 2013
Aboitiz Power Corp. unit Hedcor Inc. is looking to spend P2 billion each for the hydropower projects that it intends to develop within the next few years upon the Department of Energy’s (DoE) approval.
Hedcor president Rene Ronquillo said in an interview with reporters during the Philippine Hydro Summit 2013, which was organized by Philippine Association of Small Scale Hydropower Inc. (PASSHydro), that the company is planning to work on around 60 mini hydropower projects, which has a collective capacity of about 400 megawatts (MW).
“We have about 39 [pending applications with the Department of Energy] that we’ve applied for. If we’ll be building two at a time, that’s quite a long time,” Ronquillo, who is also the PASSHydro treasurer, said, adding that the company intends to develop two projects a year as soon as the DoE grants them the contracts.
“We hope to have two plants under construction every year. If we can just get the permits on time, that’s what we should be doing,” he said.
Ronquillo added that currently, the company has two projects that are under construction which have a combined capacity of 13 MW.
“Thirteen MW for the two projects and we’re just waiting for one last permit to start our project in Sabangan in Mountain Province, which is a 13-MW plant. Next to that, we are still waiting for DoE actually contracts to start the other projects,” he said.
Ronquillo said that the company intends to start the P2-billion Sabangan project next month, and that it would take about two years to complete it.
“[We are just waiting for] special land use permit or SLUP. That is used to be a regional permit before, but due to a lot of floods, the government has tightened up. Unfortunately, the process became a lot longer. But we’re almost on the last stage, so we’re quite confident we could start by April,” he added.
The other projects that Hedcor is going to work on this year are the Tudaya 1 and 2 projects.
“We are looking at other projects but right now, they’re just studies. Although, we have started our consultations with the communities and they seem to be quite excited about it. There are projects in Bukidnon, in Negros and in other parts of the Cordilleras,” Ronquillo said.
“We believe there’s strong community support because the nice thing about small hydro is that it provides inclusive development in the community. So there were quite excited but we’re still waiting for the RE [renewable energy] contracts,” Ronquillo added.
As for Hedcor’s current portfolio, Ronquillo said that the company currently has 19 plants and the next two are still under construction. source
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