P660-M hydro plants set to rise in Quezon

Two subsidiaries of Pure Energy Holdings Corp., together with Giga United Power and businessman Willy Ocier, have formed a consortium to build mini-hydropower plants in the province of Quezon—a venture that is expected to cost P660 million.

The two firms are Blue Energy Holdings and Management Corp. and Repower Energy Development Corp. (REDC), the former headed by professional basketball player Christopher Tiu.

Construction of the facilities will begin in June 2017 in Real, Quezon. Once completed, the Lower Labayat and Upper Tignoan mini-hydropower plants will have 1.4 and 1.5 megawatts of installed capacities respectively, and will cascade through the Labayat and Tignoan rivers.

“After years of predevelopment work, we look forward to starting the construction phase of our two mini-hydro projects in Quezon province,” Tiu said. “These power plants will harness our abundant river waters to generate electricity in a clean and sustainable manner.”

“Furthermore, we expect to generate more than 400 jobs through these projects,” he added.

The two mini-hydropower plants will power around 7,000 households and will generate almost 17 gigawatt hours annually. They will deliver an average of 65 percent of plant capacity year round upon project completion.

Set to be completed in 2019, the projects will apply for the feed-in-tariff subsidy at a rate of P5.90 a kilowatt-hour for run-off-river mini hydropower.

The Lower Labayat project will connect to REDC’s Labayat 1 hydropower plant, sharing the same transmission lines and access roads, while the Upper Tignoan project will connect to the REDC switchyard nearby.

Aside from the Lower Labayat and Tignoan groundbreaking, REDC will be starting work on its 3-MW Lalawinan run-of-river hydropower plant with joint venture partner Meralco, also within the month of May. REDC has been aggressive in building up a portfolio of hydropower projects in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.