THE municipal council of La Trinidad, Benguet has given its approval to Aboitiz Power Corp.’s plan to expand its hydroelectric power plant facilities in the area to 19 megawatts (MW) by 2019, the company said on Tuesday.
The project, which is being carried out by AboitizPower subsidiary Hedcor, Inc., aims to increase the combined capacity of three cascading plants from 5.48 MW.
“Hedcor and the local government unit of La Trinidad signed on June 27 the Memorandum of Agreement to cover the project and the benefits for the locality,” AboitizPower said in a statement.
It previously said that the revamp of what Hedcor calls Bineng 1, Bineng 2 and Bineng 2b is projected to generate 42.7 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) more or a total generation of 62 million kWh annually.
“Since its entry in Benguet in 1986, Hedcor has sustained its growth momentum. Starting from the rehabilitation of four hydroelectric power plants owned by the City of Baguio, the company later on constructed its own generation facilities in the municipalities of La Trinidad, Sablan, Tuba, Bakun, and Itogon,” AboitizPower said.
AboitizPower also said that together with Hedcor, they are “strong partners in the socioeconomic development of the community.”
It noted the La Trinidad local government unit received last year about P77 million as its barangay and municipal share from the operation of the hydropower plants. It also said Hedcor’s business tax, real property tax and national wealth tax reached P67 million in 2016.
To date, AboitizPower said the municipality had received P13 million in corporate social responsibility projects.
“These projects include farm-to-market roads, school buildings, and loans to cooperatives involved in the cut flower business,” it said.
The Bineng facility is one of three run-of-river hydro power projects developed by Hedcor in Benguet. The power plants have combined capacity of 98 MW.
Together with partners, AboitizPower has a net sellable capacity of more than 1,200 MW from its renewable energy portfolio of geothermal, hydro, and solar power plants in different parts of the country.
“The company continues to grow its renewable portfolio with the construction of the 69-MW Manolo Fortich run-of-river hydro project in Bukidnon and the 8-MW Maris Canal hydro project in Isabela. Soon, it will commission its first biomass power plant through subsidiary Aseagas [Corp.] in Batangas,” it said. — Victor V. Saulon
