Hedcor Inc., a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation, that is into run-of-river hydropower ventures, had surpassed its power generation target of 123 kilowatt-hours (kWhs) within first quarter this year, with it logging total generation of 182 kWhs.

Hedcor Vice President for Operations Rolando Pacquaio noted that aside from favorable weather conditions, the company’s performance within the period was “largely driven by our continued efforts to improve plant reliability.”

The company further asserted that it “consistently hit its monthly generation targets while powering some 76,000 households.”

The hydro firm added that it has been logging steady improvements on its reliability performances – and those metrics include ensuring high availability and maintaining low unplanned downtime hours.

“This entails continuous efforts to automate legacy hydro plants in Luzon, as well as integration of the Manolo Fortich hydros in Bukidnon to the Mindanao control center, which will allow Hedcor to control all its plants across Mindanao from a single room,” Pacquaio explained.

He said Hedcor’s automation undertakings delved with installation of systems aimed at “improving operational efficiency, enhancing safety by minimizing the interaction between plant operators and the various machines, as well as enabling real-time monitoring to help them stay on top of their operations.”

As emphasized, if the most recent operating outcome of Hedcor would be compared to the last five years,” the group’s daily generation percentage was at its highest and most consistent in 2021.”

The hydropower firm expounded that it logged “an average daily generation percentage of 145.41-percent versus last year’s first quarter figure of 80.99-percent.”

“This outstanding performance of Hedcor translates to a larger equivalent benefit that Hedcor’s host communities will reap, a part of which includes educational assistance, livelihood projects, health programs and environmental initiatives,” the company stressed.

The enhanced performance of the run-of-river hydropower generation portfolio of the company is part of the Aboitiz group’s all-inclusive strategy “to ramp up efforts to improve the performance of its renewable energy facilities across the country,” and this is in line also with its overall goal to balance its mix to 50:50 thermal-to-RE ratio within a decade stretch.

“We continuously look for ways to improve the performance of our Cleanergy plants in order to achieve our availability and reliability targets,” Aboitiz Power President and CEO Emmanuel V. Rubio said.

He further qualified that “this will be an important part of our operations as we work on our goal of achieving 50:50 balance between our Cleanergy and thermal portfolios in the next 10 years.”