6 firms eye NIA’s hydropower projects

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has given the green light to feasibility studies to be submitted by six energy players, a development that would pave the way for the first set of hydropower plants to rise in the country's existing irrigation sites.

NIA Administrator Gen. Ricardo R. Visaya already approved nine Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to six hydropower developers that will allow them to conduct Feasibility Study (FS) on the development of proposed Hydropower Plants within several NIA Irrigation Systems.

As stipulated in the MOU, the said feasibility study is at no cost to NIA. It will also have an inextendible term of one year from effectivity.

NIA is currently embarking on the benefits of developing and constructing hydropower projects on its existing irrigation systems and future irrigation projects all throughout the country.

This means that NIA, aside from providing sustainable and efficient irrigation services, can actually be an active partner for power generation.

According to previous studies conducted by the agency, there are about 357 potential irrigation sites for hydropower.

These sites, upon development, will provide electricity to far-flung communities and will further boost the economic development of the country as a whole.

The first set of developers that may soon build hydropower plants within NIA sites include C Squared Prime Commodities (CSPC) Corporation, which is interested in putting up conventional HydroElectric Power Plant (HEPP) in Agno River Irrigation System (ARIS) in Pangasinan; PHILCARBON, Inc., which intends to develop a 600 kW HEPP along MARIS Magat F in Cordon, Isabela; and Iraya Energy Corporation, which proposes to develop a 1MW HEPP along MARIS (South) Main Canal in Ramon, Isabela.

Other developers were Matuno River Development Corporation, which plans to develop and 8 MW run-of-river mini-hydro project along Matuno River in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya; the Tokyo Electric Power Services Company, LTD. (TEPSCO), which aims to develop a power plant along the Bayongan Diversion Chute in Ubay, Bohol; and the DA Green Power Consultancy which proposes to install Helios Powerball along Balingasag Canal, Daguitan RIS Canal, and Ormoc BAO RIS Canal in Misamis Oriental, Tacloban, and Leyte respectively.

Visaya said before that he had always wanted to pursue optimizing the potential of NIA’s existing irrigation systems. He also agreed to the idea of putting up eco-tourism destinations as well as hydropower plants to all potential irrigation sites owned and managed by the agency. (MBM)