2 Benguet power plants to add 225 MW in Luzon

By Dexter A. See

BOKOD, Benguet — The two power generating plants in this vegetable-producing province is expected to add at least 225 megawatts to the Luzon grid within four years to help mitigate the effects of a power shortage projected by the Department of Energy (DoE) by 2012.

This developed as the SN Aboitiz Power Corporation in Benguet started rehabilitating the Ambuclao and Binga dams in Barangay Ambuclao here and in nearby Tinongdan, Itogon, respectively, to maximize their production.

Lawyer Mike Hosillos, SNAPB external affairs manager, said the rehabilitation of the two dams will include the provision of new turbines and generators to improve generation efficiency in the coming years.

From its previous 75-MW production, Ambuclao Dam is expected to produce at least 105 MW while Binga Dam, which was previously producing 100 MW, is projected to improve output to 120 MW.

According to Hosillos, the rehabilitation of Ambuclao will be completed by next year while the upgrading of Binga will be finished in the next four years.

The SNAPB official said funding for the rehabilitation of the dams will be sourced from financing obtained from lenders, particularly the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank (WB).

The Aboitiz-owned firm won the rights for the privatization of the two power plants when it submitted a bid of $325 million payable in the next 25 to 50 years.

The Ambuclao and Binga dams were constructed by the national government in the 1950s. However, their operations suffered when they were heavily damaged during the July 16, 1990 killer earthquake which resulted to the massive siltation of their respective water intake tunnels and reservoirs.

While the company is rehabilitating the power plants, the SNAPB official said they are also addressing the concerns of host communities, especially relative to their ancestral domain, development and livelihood projects and environmental concerns.

Both dams are located along the stretch of the Agno river basin and are described as two of the most important power generating plants previously owned by the national government.
Initially, the projected cost of the rehabilitation of the dams is estimated at $200 million.