Ambuklao to generate electricity next year

BOKOD, Benguet – Amid growing reservations on dam operations, one of the country’s oldest multi-purpose dams, which has been idle for a decade now, is expected to be back in operation next year as one of Luzon’s major power providers.

The 50-year-old Ambuklao Dam here, whose power component was acquired by the SN-Aboitiz Power consortium last year, is expected to generate power for the Luzon grid by the third quarter of next year.

The dam has been undergoing massive rehabilitation after the government through the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management, turned over its power facility, including the power plant of neighboring Binga Dam, to SNAP for $325 million in July 2008.

The dam’s facilities, which include turbines, spillways and reservoir, were almost totally damaged as a result of the 1990 earthquake.

SNAP officials said most of the dam’s damaged facilities, including the four turbines, need total replacements.

“In December 2008, (SNAP) began rehabilitating the Ambuklao plant, which has been shut down since 1999 as a result of damage from a major earthquake in 1990,” said lawyer Mike Hosillos, SNAP spokesman.

The rehabilitation project, he said, will re-commission the Ambuklao plant as well as upgrade the Binga plant into full capacity.

Ambuklao, when fully rehabilitated, could generate 120 megawatts of electricity from its four turbines, from around 100 MW before it got damaged in 1999.

The Binga Dam generates almost the same power capacity.

A Norwegian-Filipino consortium, SNAP also owns and operates the power component of the Ramon, Isabela-based Magat Hydroelectric and Irrigation Project, which it acquired from the government for $550 million in 2006.

Besides providing irrigation to at least 80,000 hectares of farmlands in Isabela and parts of Cagayan and Quirino, the three-decade-old Magat Dam is capable of generating a maximum of 360 MW of electricity daily, the biggest among the dams in the country. – CL