Hedcor secures town clearance to expand Benguet hydro plant

MANILA, Philippines - A unit of Aboitiz Power Corp. is pushing through with the expansion of the 25-year old run-of-river hydropower plants in La Trinidad, Benguet after securing approval from the municipal council.

AboitizPower said its wholly owned subsidiary Hedcor Inc. is tripling the combined capacity of the Bineng hydro power plant facilities from 5.48 megawatts (MW) to 19 MW by 2019.

Hedcor and the local government of La Trinidad signed on June 27 a memorandum of agreement to cover the project and the benefits for the locality.

 “We are positive that this development will have great impact on the municipality’s growth. The local government will play an active role in making this project a success,” La Trinidad mayor Romeo Salda said.

Since its entry in Benguet in 1986, Hedcor has sustained its growth momentum. Starting from the rehabilitation of four hydroelectric power plants owned by the city of Baguio, the company later on constructed its own generation facilities in the municipalities of La Trinidad, Sablan, Tuba, Bakun and Itogon.

In addition to being a reliable power supplier, Hedcor and AboitizPower are strong partners in the socio-economic development of the community.

In 2016, the La Trinidad local government unit received about P77 million as its barangay and municipal share from the operation of the hydropower plants.

Moreover, Hedcor’s business tax, real property tax and national wealth tax in 2016 reached P67 million.

The municipality of La Trinidad has also received corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects worth P13 million, to-date. These projects include farm-to-market roads, school buildings, and loans to cooperatives involved in the cut flower business.