The government may have to spend as much as P30 billion to rehabilitate the Agus-Pulangi hydropower complexes in Mindanao and increase the output to a maximum of 982 megawatts.
In an interview, Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras said the amount would be used to replace old equipment as well as improve the impounding capacity of the dams.
This will raise the generating capacity of the power complex from the current 646 MW to the installed capacity of 982 MW.
Based on the pronouncements made by President Aquino during the Mindanao power summit last Friday, however, the government has only committed a P2.6-billion budget for the rehabilitation of the Agus 6 hydroelectric plant and another P7.24 billion for the rehabilitation of river basins to allow water to flow to the Agus and Pulangi facilities.
The repair and rehabilitation of the power units at the hydropower complexes can no longer be put off considering the age of the units.
Agus 6, the first of the six Agus units, was constructed back in 1953, while the newest of the power plants, Agus 1, began operating in 1992.
The Pulangi hydropower plant in Bukidnon, meanwhile, began operating commercially in 1985.
The Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex currently provides a little over half, or 53 percent, of Mindanao’s electricity requirements, which makes it all the more pressing for the government to proceed with the rehabilitation program—assuming that it would not be selling the facilities to the private sector.