Published December 22, 2017, 10:00
PM By
Madelaine B. Miraflor
The National Irrigation
Administration (NIA) has given the green light to feasibility studies to be
submitted by six energy players, a development that would pave the way for the
first set of hydropower plants to rise in the country’s existing irrigation
sites.
NIA Administrator Gen. Ricardo R.
Visaya already approved nine Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to six hydropower
developers that will allow them to conduct Feasibility Study (FS) on the
development of proposed Hydropower Plants within several NIA Irrigation
Systems.
As stipulated in the MOU, the said
feasibility study is at no cost to NIA. It will also have an inextendible term
of one year from effectivity.
NIA is currently embarking on the
benefits of developing and constructing hydropower projects on its existing
irrigation systems and future irrigation projects all throughout the country.
This means that NIA, aside from
providing sustainable and efficient irrigation services, can actually be an active
partner for power generation.
According to previous studies
conducted by the agency, there are about 357 potential irrigation sites for
hydropower.
These sites, upon development, will
provide electricity to far-flung communities and will further boost the
economic development of the country as a whole.
The first set of developers that may
soon build hydropower plants within NIA sites include C Squared Prime
Commodities (CSPC) Corporation, which is interested in putting up conventional
HydroElectric Power Plant (HEPP) in Agno River Irrigation System (ARIS) in
Pangasinan; PHILCARBON, Inc., which intends to develop a 600 kW HEPP along
MARIS Magat F in Cordon, Isabela; and Iraya Energy Corporation, which proposes
to develop a 1MW HEPP along MARIS (South) Main Canal in Ramon, Isabela.
Other developers were Matuno River
Development Corporation, which plans to develop and 8 MW run-of-river
mini-hydro project along Matuno River in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya; the Tokyo
Electric Power Services Company, LTD. (TEPSCO), which aims to develop a power
plant along the Bayongan Diversion Chute in Ubay, Bohol; and the DA Green Power
Consultancy which proposes to install Helios Powerball along Balingasag Canal,
Daguitan RIS Canal, and Ormoc BAO RIS Canal in Misamis Oriental, Tacloban, and
Leyte respectively.
Visaya said before that he had
always wanted to pursue optimizing the potential of NIA’s existing irrigation
systems. He also agreed to the idea of putting up eco-tourism destinations as
well as hydropower plants to all potential irrigation sites owned and managed
by the agency.
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