Strong RE demand fuels AboitizPower’s hydropower business

The project is made possible with the support of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Department of Energy (DOE), host communities, and local government units. (Photo by SN Aboitiz Power Group)

MANILA – Backed by a strong demand for renewable energy (RE), AboitizPower continues to ramp up its portfolio of generation facilities across the Philippines.

AboitizPower’s subsidiary, SN AboitizPower (SNAP), has just completed the commissioning of its 8.5-megawatt (MW) Maris Main Canal 1 hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Vizcaya, as it gears toward full commercial operation this November.

The project is made possible with the support of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Department of Energy (DOE), host communities, and local government units.

The plant re-uses the water coming from the 360-MW Magat hydro plant through the re-regulating dam located downstream of Magat River. The water then flows into the Maris Main (South) Irrigation Canal.

Maris Hydro Power Plant, the first greenfield project of SNAP, is composed of two units of Kaplan pit type turbines with generator nameplate capacity of 4.25 MW each.

Unit 1 was commissioned on October 24, while Unit 2 was commissioned on November 6.

The construction of the USD47-million hydro plant, located in Brgy.Ambatali in Ramon, Isabela, took about two years.

In October, AboitizPower’s run-of-river hydro business unit, Hedcor, signed civil works contract with UK-based contractor Whessoe for its 19-MW Bineng Combined Hydropower Project in Benguet.

This project, approved by the municipal council of La Trinidad, Benguet last July, will increase the combined capacity of the Bineng plants from 5.48 MW to 19 MW.

In addition, AboitizPower subsidiary Hedcor’s 69-MW run-of-river hydro project ManoloFortich, which is currently synchronizing to the grid, is targeted for commercial operations in 2017 or early 2018.

Once completed, it will increase Hedcor’s capacity of 185 MW of clean and renewable energy from 22 hydropower plants nationwide, bringing AboitizPower’s advanced hydro project developments at present to around 97 MW.

“The company’s continued expansion of its RE portfolio is in line with its balanced mix growth strategy,” said Antonio R. Moraza, AboitizPower President and COO.

“We never stop looking for ways to maximize productions from our RE facilities because we know the role it plays in our overall strategy,” Moraza said.

Moraza also added that apart from new RE businesses, the company also explores innovative ways to maximize clean and renewable energy sources.

AboitizPower and its partners currently have a total of 787-MW capacity from hydropower generation facilities, which make up 62 percent of the total 1,263-MW RE capacity.

The company also owns the 4th and the 7th largest geothermal power plants in the world, which are the 448-MW Makban Geothermal Power Plant in Laguna and Batangas, and the 234-MW Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant in Albay, respectively.

In 2016, AboitizPower also launched its first venture into solar power in Negros.

“If we can maximize the potential to produce more energy from an existing resource, we will do it, and that is what we did with Maris, as well as the binary plant in Makban, and soon in Bineng. And our teams will continue to look at these opportunities, as well as new greenfield renewable projects wherever they are available and viable,” Moraza said.