First mini-hydro power plant in Quezon breaks ground

MANILA, Philippines – Local renewable energy developer Repower Energy Development Corp. (REDC) and its partners, food and fishing conglomerate Frabelle and TSP Marine Group, have started building a three-megawatt (MW) mini-hydropower plant in Quezon, the first in the province.

REDC said in a statement the partners broke ground for a three-MW run-of-river hydropower plant at the Upper Labayat River in Real, Quezon.

“This project will directly address the province’s overdependence on coal power plants as its primary energy source,” REDC chief executive officer Dexter Tiu said.

The company said the plant, which will use water from the Upper Labayat River stream, is scheduled to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2018, after a construction period of about two years.

Frabelle Group president Francisco “Kiko” Tiu-Laurel said the project will not only provide power needs in the local community but can one day supply their own factories and shipyards.

“The hydropower project, once constructed, will generate more energy than our own factory requirements and at the same time stabilize the energy needs of the communities here,” he said.

The power plant will generate over 16-gigawatt-hours of clean and renewable energy annually, equivalent to the consumption of around 20,000 households.

The Upper Labayat hydropower plant’s renewable power output through a 2.5- kilometer transmission line is expected to qualify for feed-in-tariff incentives and get dispatched in the electricity spot market at P5.90 per kilowatt hour.