SN Aboitiz to repurpose Alimit hydropower complex

MANILA, Philippines — SN Aboitiz Power Group (SNAP), the joint venture of Norway-based Scatec Solar and Aboitiz Power Corp., plans to repurpose the postponed Alimit hydropower complex into a flood control project following the massive flooding in Cagayan last year.

In a briefing over the weekend, AboitizPower president and CEO Emmanuel Rubio said the company is trying to repurpose the Alimit complex as a flood control project, which “has caught the attention of the Department of Energy (DOE) given the flooding Cagayan had last year.”

“We will again revisit this once we have moved forward with the battery energy storage system (BESS), which is now actually ongoing and the completion of the floating solar along the Magat reservoir,” he said.

SNAP is working on an energy storage system with a 20-megawatt (MW) capacity and 20-MWh energy storage in Ramon, Isabela, which is targeted to commence commercial operations in 2023.

Meanwhile, a commercial scale floating solar project with a capacity of at least 67 megawatts (MW) is being planned on the Magat reservoir. This follows the success of the 200-kilowatt (kw) pilot floating solar project in 2019.

The BESS project and the floating solar project will be in the complex of the 380-MW Magat hydropower plant. Located on the border of Isabela and Ifugao, the firm acquired the hydropower asset from the government in 2007.

Rubio said the development of the Alimit hydropower complex was stalled amid several issues in transmission lines and permitting.

“We’ve actually put the project on hold when we saw some permitting issues, especially with the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), and mainly also because of the identified constraint poised by the Magat-Santiago Line not being N-1 compliant,” he said.

The N-1 provision of the Philippine Grid Code requires back up equipment to prevent outage when other facilities are not available or on scheduled shutdown.

“But we’ve recently been assured by National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) that there will be reconductoring of the Magat Santiago Line and that will just open up projects within the area of SNAP to include the battery, the floating solar,” Rubio said.

The COVID-19 pandemic also halted ground engagements with the community due to the government-imposed restrictions and risks.

So far, SNAP has already secured agreements with its host municipalities, received the environmental compliance certificate (ECC), and completed the free prior and informed consent (FPIC) process with the indigenous communities.

Pre-construction works were supposed to commence in the third quarter of 2019 after getting all the necessary permits.

But in September 2019, the company announced that the construction timeline of the Alimit project was pushed back to firm up the cost and design of the project.

The Alimit hydropower complex consists of the 120 MW Alimit hydropower plant, the 250-MW Alimit pumped storage facility, and the 20-MW Olilicon hydropower plant.

The project aims to combine the waters of the Alimit River and Ibulao River to generate electricity. To supply power to the grid, it requires a 42-km 230-kilovolt transmission line.

The complex encompasses four ancestral domains in the municipalities of Aguinaldo, Lagawe, Lamut, and Mayoyao, with 81 host barangays under these domains.