Repower starts Quezon run-of-river plant

MANILA  -Businessman Dexter Tiu’s listed Repower Energy Development Corp. commissioned a 1.4-megawatt (MW) run-of-river (ROR) hydroelectric power plant in Quezon province on Wednesday in a bid to expand the company’s portfolio and generate more power for consumers in the Luzon grid.

Repower’s Lower Labayat plant, its eighth mini hydro facility so far, is slated to have an annual generation of 8 gigawatt-hours. It will be operated by Blue Energy Holdings and Management Corp., an affiliate of Repower.

“The year 2023 for [Repower] has been truly a period of aggressive expansion to provide clean energy to under-electrified communities in provinces, and this ROR hydropower plant in Barangay Labayat is a testament to the success we are currently experiencing,” Repower president Eric Peter Roxas said in a statement.

According to Repower, the facility located between the existing Upper Labayat and Tibag hydropower plants utilizes the downstream Labayat river to produce clean energy.

The three mini hydropower plants are connected through a 69-kilovolt transmission line that is connected to the national grid.

Repower on Tuesday announced that it was expecting to earn P250 million this year from its operations on the back of newly opened facilities, including the 5.8-MW Tibag power plant.

It is currently constructing a 4.5-MW hydropower plant in Quezon and a 20-MW facility in Bukidnon province. Both are scheduled for full commercial operations in the first quarter of 2025.

Repower is also set to construct three more hydropower plants in Northern Luzon next year. INQ