Permitting issue holds up 390-MW Ifugao hydroplant

By Alena Mae S. Flores – November 07, 2021 at 07:00 pm
from manilastandard.net

Renewable energy developer SN Aboitiz Power Corp. put on hold the development of the proposed $550-million, 390-megawatt Alimit hydropower complex in Ifugao province over permitting and transmission line constraints, a top executive said over the weekend.

“We’ve actually put the project on hold when we saw some permitting issues especially with the NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) and mainly also because of the identified constraint poised by the Magat-Santiago line not being N-1 compliant (system resilience),” Aboitiz Power Corp. president Emmanuel Rubio said.

SN Aboitiz is the joint venture of Aboitiz Power and SN Power of Norway (now owned by Scatec ASA) for hydropower projects.
SNAP already received an approval to develop the hydro project from the affected communities.

The first phase of the project involves the construction of the 120-megawatt Alimit plant and the 20-MW Olilicon station. The second phase of the complex includes the 250-MW Alimit pumped storage facility.

“But we’ve recently been assured by NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) that there will be reconductoring of the Magat- Santiago line and that will just open up projects within the area of SNAP to include the battery, the floating solar,” Rubio said.

He said the battery energy storage project and floating solar projects “are the lower hanging fruits” than the Alimit hydro project.

“We see a lot of concerns with regard to the Alimit project. We are even trying to repurpose Alimit as flood control and that has caught the attention of the DOE [Department of Energy], given the flooding Cagayan had last year or two years ago,” Rubio said.

“We will again revisit this once we have moved forward with the battery which is now actually ongoing and the completion of the floating solar along the Magat reservoir,” Rubio said.

SNAP owns and operates the 360-MW Magat hydroplant on the borders of Isabela and Ifugao; the 8.5-MW Maris hydro in Isabela; the 105-MW Ambuklao hydro in Benguet; and the 140-MW Binga hydro also in Benguet.