United Holdings to put up 15-MW hydro plant in Bukidnon

MANILA, Philippines - Greenfield renewable energy firm United Holdings Power Corp. (UHPC) will put up a 15-megawatt hydropower plant in Bukidnon to help ease the power shortage in Mindanao.

In a briefing yesterday, UHPC president Dominic Sytin said the project is targeted for completion in two years.

“The target is to start construction in 2015,” he said.

The 15-MW cascading mini-hydro project will tap the Maladugao River in Lampanusan, Kalilangan, Bukidnon.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the service contract for the hydro project last UHPC last March 19 with the full feasibility study completed.

“The competition of the full feasibility study signals an important milestone in our project development. We are committed to the realization of this project that will benefit not only Bukidnon but the rest of Mindanao as well,” Sytin said.

He said the company would fund the project through a combination of internally generated funds and loans from banks.

He said the project would generate more than 100 gigawatt-hours of additional energy to augment and help ease the power shortage in Mindanao by the second quarter of 2017.

Sytin said the company is supporting the DOE’s Power Development Plan and Philippine Energy Plan, which aims to increase the country’s self sufficiency in energy using environment friendly, cleaner fuels by firming up the entry of renewable energy capacities.

He said hydropower is clean, very sustainable, and is easy to maintain.

“With proper operations and maintenance, some hydropower plants in the Philippines are still running and producing power since they were commissioned before World War II in 1936,” Sytin noted.

A portion of the energy produced will be supplied to the local cooperative and the balance will be dispatched to the grid under the feed-in-tariff regime.

In choosing Bukidnon for the project, Sytin said the province is touted as the watershed of Mindanao.

He said once the project takes off, UHPC would also look into other areas in Mindanao for possible hydropower projects.

“We will look into other provinces. Right now, we’re focusing on Mindanao. If there are other regions in the Philippines that we can identify, we will look into those areas,” Sytin said.