Neg. Occ. may have hydropower by 2013
BY CARLA GOMEZ
KABANKALAN CITY – Negros Occidental will have an additional 55 megawatts of much needed power by 2013 if plans to build hydroelectric plants along the Bago River and in Barangay Carol-an, here push through on schedule.
Kabankalan Mayor Pedro Zayco and Tirso Santillan Jr., executive vice president of Conal Holdings Corp., signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the City Hall here yesterday to begin the study on how to approach the Carol-an project, which was witnessed by Gov. Isidro Zayco.
“We are given six months to put together a preliminary study,” Santillan said. After which we will inform the Kabankalan City government of our findings that will include the Carol-an power capacity, the project cost, timetable, and the tariff we will charge, and if all of those numbers are okay then we will proceed to a full feasibility study, Santillan added.
“If the full feasibility study upholds our conclusions then we will proceed with the development,” he said, adding that the Carol-an hydro power plant will produce probably about 15 megawatts of power.
The Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative has enough demand to take the full 15 megawatts, he said.
“We think that we can live with charging about P4 per kilowatt hour but its still subject to computation,” he said.
He admitted that, in times of droughts when there is not enough water, the hydro plants may produce less power that could cost more.
Meanwhile, a detailed engineering study for the building of three hydro power plants along the Bago River in San Carlos, Don Salvador Benedicto and Murcia using run of the river dams is under way, said Santillan, who is also the executive vice president of Alto Power Management Corp.
Construction work for the three plants that will cost P4 billion and are initially expected to produce 40 megawatts, is expected to start at the end of 2010 and be completed by 2013, Santillan said.
But there are geological issues in the Bago River that they need to be careful about, he said. “There is a fault line and slide plains we are trying to avoid and our technical studies will determine whether we can do that safely,” Santillan said.
Alto Power Management Corp. will be a developer and major investor in the Bago River project, he said.
Other expected investors are the Electricity Generating Power Co. of Thailand and Toyota Tsusho of Japan, he said.
Conal Holdings Corp. that entered into an agreement with Kabankalan City owns 60 percent of Alto Power, while the remaining 40 percent is owned by Toyota Tsusho, Santillan said.*CPG
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