A 16-megawatt hydropower facility sited in Eastern Samar is ready to kick-off its commercial operations, according to project sponsor Taft Hydro Energy Corp. (THEC), one of the flourishing renewable energy companies in the country.
With the facility now adding capacity to the grid, THEC indicated that the project “will support the country’s growing need for power and boost economic growth.”
THEC President Benjie Picardo emphasized that while hydro projects are challenging to build and the hurdles had been aggravated by the restrictive protocols of the Covid-19 pandemic, their company “did it in record time of less than two years.”
Aleksander Ikodinovic, who represented Global Hydro Energy, the electromechanical supplier of THEC, had described the newly commissioned facility as “a huge project with three units of 5.9 MW,” adding that “with this plant, local places will get energy required for normal life and grid improvement.”
The hydropower facility’s construction had been partly bankrolled by a P1 billion loan facility extended by the state-run Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) that has been largely supportive of RE project installations.
“THEC originally targeted to commission its hydro project in December but due to some delays it was moved to March, but still the project was completed well within the project timeline,” the project-developer firm qualified.
As cast on blueprint, the Taft hydropower plant will be utilizing the Taft-Tubig River in Barangay San Rafael in Taft, Eastern Samar “to provide stable and affordable electricity in Samar Island and Leyte Province.”
The hydro plant, which will be feeding its capacity into the load network of Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative Inc. (ESAMELCO), will “provide power to the island of Samar which is part of the country’s Tuna Highway.”
THEC primarily stated that “the lack of power has constrained investments in cold storage facilities for tuna fishermen to be able to maximize the potential of the tuna industry.”
As noted by Picardo, “our fishermen cannot wait for the project to come online soon enough. At the same time, the completion of the THEC project will create a major economic multiplier by opening investment opportunities in cold storage, processing plants, and even in tourism.”
As part of the comprehensive framework on the project’s development, THEC planted over 3,000 tree saplings at the Samar Island Natural Park; and will eventually increase that to 500,000 trees to be planted throughout the facility’s life cycle so it can provide integrity of the watershed area.
Project sponsor-firm THEC is a subsidiary of Magis Energy Holdings Corporation, a Filipino company that was formed in 2019 to undertake renewable energy developments in the power sector.