Aboitiz Power Corp. has put on hold the development of the Alimit hydro power complex in Ifugao Province due to issues related to permitting and power lines.
Emmanuel Rubio, Aboitiz Power president and chief executive officer, in an online briefing last week, said the company has yet to secure permit from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
The Magat-Santiago power line where the project will be connected is not ready to host a big project auch as this.
SN Aboitiz Power, a joint venture between AboitizPower and Norwegian renewable power producer, SCATEC ASA, originally planned to build the Alimit hydropower complex in two phases.
The first phase involves the construction of a 120 megawatts (MW) Alimit plant and a 20 MW Olilicon plant at a cost of $450 to $550 million.
The second phase is a 250 MW Alimit pumped storage facility.
Rubio said Aboitiz Power will focus on battery storage and floating solar projects in the area following the assurance of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines there will be re-conductoring of the Magat-Santiago line that will be able to host more projects in the region.
“We believe that these are the lower hanging fruits than Alimit. We see a lot of concerns with regard to the Alimit project that we are even trying to re-purpose it as flood control and that has caught the attention of the Department of Energy given the flooding Cagayan had last year or two years ago,” Rubio said.
He address they will revisit the feasibility of the Alimit hydro complex once planned battery storage and floating solar projects are completed.
Aboitiz Power plans to spend P190 billion over the next decade for an additional 3,700 MW of renewable energy projects in its portfolio.
Aboitiz Power said its expected total capacity by 2030 will be at 9,200 MW, half of which or 4,600 MW will come from various renewable energy sources.
As of October 2020, Aboitiz Power had the biggest share in installed generating capacity in the entire country at 4,973.4 MW equivalent to a share of 21.3 percent of the total 23,409.7 MW – Jed Macapagal
