Optimized plant operation provides reliable power supply in DavSur

STA. CRUZ, Davao  del  Sur, Apr. 23 – After  generating  over  600  GWh  last  year from its run-of-river  hydropower  plants  in Benguet, Ilocos Sur, and Davao, Hedcor attests its high reliability when it comes to power generation.“We are producing power efficiently and reliably for more than 30 years now,” Hedcor Vice President Boy Jabonillo said.

“Reliability for us means we deliver to our customers as promised. Making our plants reliable to produce power is a year-round responsibility,” Jabonillo added. He pointed out three reasons why Hedcor hydropower system is reliable.

First, Hedcor makes sure its plants are readily available to generate power.  Hedcor maintains its plant through constant monitoring of equipment and its annual preventive maintenance schedule for optimum performance throughout the year. In fact, the plants are averaging 98% reliable.

Second, Hedcor continues to build more run-of-river hydropower plants to address the growing demands of power in the regions.In Mindanao, there are five plants that Hedcor is currently developing, it will bring 55 MW of additional capacity to Davao City, Davao del Sur and Bukidnon in 2014.“We have a unique operational ability in which we can provide energy regularly to power our customers because water is accessible in our area.”

Jabonillo said.Lastly, Hedcor intensifies its watershed management activities including reforestation, river clean up and riverbank stabilization as the company’s operations is highly dependent on available water.“A healthy watershed ensures us water will always be available”, he said.

Hedcor,  the AboitizPower wholly-owned subsidiary, is the largest developer of  run-of-river  hydropower  systems  with  19  generating  plants  in the country.

The five projects are under application with the Department of Energy as  Renewable  Energy (RE) Projects under the Renewable Energy Act.Once RE Contracts are issued, two of the five plants can start constructing while the three can progress to detailed design.

Without the RE Contract,Hedcor cannot  get  the  other  permits  to  progress  the  project  to construction. (Hedcor)