VALENCIA CITY, Bukidnon – A mini hydro-power plant project that is expected to generate 74-giga watts per hour of energy for the Mindanao grid will be put up here and the commissioning would start by the first quarter of 2019.
The Pulanai Mini Hydropower Project, with 10.6 megawatt installed capacity had its groundbreaking ceremony Friday afternoon in Barangay Hangaron, Lumbayao here.
According to its project profile, the P2.7 billion project is the first project by Pure Meridian Hydropower Corporation, a joint venture corporation between Repower Energy Development Corporation and the Manila Electric Company.
Meralco is the largest energy distribution company in the country operating in 36 cities and 75 municipalities.
REDC is a renewable energy developer and has 124 MW of mini hydropower projects clustered in Laguna, Quezon, Camarines Sur and Bukidnon. This Bukidnon project is its third mini hydropower project of REDC to ground break this year and its first in Mindanao.
Christopher Tiu, director of the PMHC said their company ventured into doing the project in a bid to
aid the national development “by creating or producing power in a clean way reducing climate change and reducing climate emission.”
“I think it’s a win-win, we are able to help the country by producing power, at the same time it’s clean energy,” Tiu told Davao Today in an interview.
As a renewable energy power source, the project is expected to bring $40 million in annual coal and gas savings while reducing the country’s carbon-dioxide emissions.
In its website, REDC said “compared to a typical coal or gas power plant, a hydropower plant does not produce CO2 and prevents about 0.60 kilogram of CO2 per kilowatt hour of generation from entering the atmosphere.”
It said for one mega watt mini-hydro plant with an annual energy production of 4.4 million ke-hour at 50 percent plant factor, “the emissions saved, were the energy to come from an equivalent fossil fuel-fed power plant is 4.4 M x 0.60 KG = 2.64 M KG or 2,640 Tons of CO2 per MW.”
“This is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of 600 passenger cars,” it said.
A hydropower plant does not need oil to run and therefore saves the government, according to REDC estimates, “about US$ 500,000 / year / MW worth of oil imports assuming price per barrel is at US$ 60.”
The project contract was awarded to Infracore Development Corporation, a joint venture between triple A contractor Pacific Summit Construction Group and Obrascón Huarte Lain, one of Europe’s largest and most diversified contractor.
The turbines and other equipment are sourced from Europe.(davaotoday.com)
