By Lenie Lectura - May 14, 2018
FIRST Gen Corp.’s other hydropower
projects are put on hold until the government issues clear cut-rules on
feed-in-tariff (FiT), an incentive in the form of guaranteed power rate given
to renewable-energy producers.
“Our other hydro projects are
deemphasized because there is no FiT. If there is an extension with the FiT and
is clear, then we would proceed, but otherwise, it’s difficult for us to
proceed because it takes years to put up hydropower projects,” First Gen
President Francis Giles Puno said.
Puno added hydropower development is
actually a very long gestation, given the fact that hydropower
prospects are located in remote areas. “It’s a very important resource for
the country, and yet, it’s unclear as to whether or not we would be given a
feed-in-tariff for a long-term investment.”
The company owns
the 132-megawatt (MW) Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric power plant
complex located in Nueva Ecija. It also operates the 1.6-MW Agusan
mini-hydro in Damilag, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. First Gen was looking at
expanding its greenfield operations in Mindanao by developing three
run-of-river hydroelectric-power plants with a combined generation capacity
of 95 MW, namely the 32-MW Bubunawan and 33-MW Tagaloan plants in
Bukidnon, and the 30-MW Puyo in Agusan del Norte.
The Lopez-led firm acquired three
new concessions in 2016. These are the 175-MW Binongan-Tineg in Abra, the
160-MW Cagayan 1N in Bukidnon, and the 17.5-MW Cateel in Favao Oriental.
Puno said initial work, including
road pavement, in some of the new sites for its hydro projects has started,
noting it takes three years to four years to finish one hydropower
project. “It’s short of building the tunnel itself, but because the
pronouncement is unclear, it is difficult for us to proceed.”
“The fine tuning of our message is
this is different from solar. Solar can be built in a year’s time and solar
deserves the race. In the case of hydro, the refinement is I don’t know whether
that race applies to hydro because of the long-term gestation. And also to give
our creditors assurance that it will be bankable, there will be a
feed-in-tariff at the end of the construction phase. We don’t want to wake up
at the end, then there’s no FiT,” he said.
He added that even the news on FiT
extension for hydro projects is not clear. “Even their pronouncement of
extending is not clear. We just heard that it is extended.”
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi
earlier said he signed a document extending the FiT allocation for biomass
and run-of-river technologies for two years. The signed document provides the
developers to fill up the remaining allocation for biomass and run-of-rive
hydropower plants until 2020.
The FiT rate for hydro stood at
P5.90 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), with an an installation target of 250 MW. The
FiT rate was lowered to P5.8705 per kWh for run-of-river hydro.
Earlier, the Philhydro
Association Inc. told the Department of Energy that the installation
target “has not been fully subscribed due to factors beyond the developers’
control.”
These include the difficulty in
securing clearance from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the
long gestation developments from permit processing to conduct of studies.
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