Rehab of Mindanao hydro plants to cost P54 B

The government needs to shell out approximately P54 billion to bankroll the rehabilitation of the AgusPulangi hydro power plants of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) in Mindanao, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the timing of the rehabilitation of the facilities was appropriate.

“Let us do it now because we are not under pressure,” Dominguez told Napocor president Pio Benavidez at a recent Executive Committee (Execom) meeting of the Department of Finance (DOF).

Benavidez informed Dominguez the government needs to take advantage of the expected power oversupply in Mindanao in the next three years.

Benavidez said the Agus 6 facility would be rehabilitated first as it is the oldest facility at 40 years followed by Agus 2 that is already operational for 37 years and Agus 7 at 34 years.

Agus 4 and 5 as well as Pulangi has been operational for 31 years while Agus 1 is 25 years old.

The rehabilitation of units 3-5 of Agus 6 costs around P8.7 billion ($172.5 million); Benavidez Agus 2,P10.45 billion ($207 million); Agus 7, P3.13 billion ($62.1 million); Agus 4 and 5, P12.37 billion ($245.07 million); Pulangi 4, P14.8 billion ($293.25 million); and Agus 1, P4.64 billion ($92 million).

Benavidez said these facilities are currently operating at around 60 percent of their over 900-megawatt rated capacity.

The rehabilitation could take place from four to five years and would increase the total capacity by an average of 10 percent for each facility to more than 1,000 megawatts.

Benavidez said the rehabilitation should be done phase by phase because the facilities could not be shut down simultaneously.

In the past, previous steps were taken to maintain these facilities. These include periodic preventive maintenance servicing.