‘Hydro plant to provide Negros cheaper power'
ZAYCO, ALTO INK MOU FOR FEASIBILITY STUDY
BY CARLA GOMEZ
;

Gov. Isidro Zayco and Alto Power Management Corp. vice president Joseph Nocos yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding that they said is geared towards providing Negros Occidental with much needed additional and cheap power, and irrigation to boost food productivity.

Under the MOU, Alto will conduct a study to determine the technical and economic feasibility of building a hydro electric power plant along the upper Bago River , which Nocos said is projected to be able to produce 75 megawatts of electricity.

“The final capacity of course will be determined after the six-month feasibility study is completed,” he said.

The study will not be starting from scratch because the National Power Corp. also undertook two studies on the power potential of the Bago River in 1981 and 1992, which need to be validated and upgraded, he said.

“Based on the NPC studies there is a better than 50 percent chance that the project can in fact take off,” Nocos said.

Should the project take off, actual work could start at the end of 2009 or early 2010 and the plant could be completed in three years, Nocos said.

And the governor's vision for hydro electric power in the province is very timely, he said.

“Alto is undertaking the project because already Negros Island is suffering a shortage of electricity…and it is about time Negros Occidental becomes self-sufficient in power,” he said.

This project is also going to be very good for Negros Occidental because it will not be influenced by the spiraling rise in the price of fuel, where we see no respite from the medium term, Nocos said.

“So the search for cheaper sources of generation will be of paramount concern to power generators like us,” he said.

And because the hydro electric power plant will be located within the Central Negros Electric Cooperative franchise area, the project would be able to directly connect with CENECO, he said. That means that CENECO will save the cost of transmission ordinarily paid to the National Transmission Corp., he said.

“Savings, there is over P1 per kilowatt hour. So not only will the cost of generation from a hydro plant be cheaper than from fossil-fired power plants, we will also save on the cost of transmission,” he said.

Nocos said based on the Mindanao experience, hydro power is cheaper than geothermal power.

The net effect is the consumers of Negros Occidental will benefit when the project becomes a reality, he said.

Zayco said the other electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental will also benefit from the hydro plant.

The plant would not only provide power but irrigation, potable water and eco tourism, Zayco also said.

The governor said the provincial government is happy that Alto intends to put up a hydro electric plant in Negros Occidental in answer to the call of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes for local governments to invite power investors, especially in renewable energy.

This hopefully will be the answer to the problem of a power shortage in Negros Occidental, he said.

Meanwhile, Nocos said after the Bago feasibility study his firm will also look at other rivers in Negros Occidental, including the one Carol-an in Kabankalan City .

“We are going to continue working with the province in identifying other potential sources of energy,” Nocos said.

Zayco said Carol-an is estimate to be able to produce 9.5 megawatts.

Also a signatory to the MOU yesterday was Alto vice president for operations Edgar Sevilles.*CPG

amyo gid ni mig nga info..daw mapuli ko haw.... :D

ari na naman ako.... mag dedevils advocate na naman ako....


there are two major factors.... volume and 'head"..... bago river has volume.. but where the hell wil they get the head?... pila ka barangay sang Bago ang butangan nila river wall just to have the water level elevated?...


just like mambucal... mambucal have "head" pero i dont think it has an adequate supply of volume... :lol:


stilll nice to hear these ideas :thumb:

pwede guro ah..

nakudalan gani sang mga kano^ sang una ang Caliraya lake nga kulang pa sila sa equipment, ang Bago pa..

wahehehehe....

we all know nga kadaku sang area coverage sang bago river when we talk of flood flow... from moises padilla, murcia, part sang kanlaon, etc.... sadya ni kung butangan dam ang bago.... dam alone cost that much.. hydropowerplant machineries also costs that much...


t sadya na bayranay sang pumuluyo.. :bounce :bounce :bounce

we need to make sacrifices, to meet human demands... kung for betterment of Negros man guid ang cause sng hydro project, i will strongly support it

but we also should not forget ang mga madalasa sg project, we need to compensate them

let's give them a chance, anyway they are making the study if feasible or not. pero daku gid na nga bulig sa aton if madayon na. aton lang na pangamuyo-an nga puede para madayon.