ABOITIZ Power Corp. has temporarily shelved the Alimit hydropower complex in Ifugao province due to unresolved permitting and transmission line issues.
“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,” said AboitizPower President Emmanuel Rubio.
N-1 compliant, which is a requirement under the Philippine Grid Code, is the ability of the power grid to withstand a major system disturbance by having back-up contingency in the system.
“But we’ve recently been assured by NGCP [National Grid Corporation of the Philippines] that there will be re-conductoring of the Magat-Santiago line and that will just open up projects within the area of SNAP [SN Aboitiz] to include the battery, the floating solar,” added Rubio.
SNAP is a joint venture of AboitizPower and Oslo-based renewable energy provider Scatec.
The Alimit project consists of the 20-MW Ollilicon plant, the 120-MW Alimit hydroelectric power plant and the 250-MW Alimit pumped storage facility. Lenie Lectura
The project aims to combine the waters of the Alimit River and Ibulao River to generate electricity. To supply power to the grid, it requires a 42-km 230 KV transmission line.
Despite these concerns, the power firm has raised to the Department of Energy (DOE) how the Alimit project could help alleviate flooding in Northern Luzon because it can trap certain amounts of water.
“We are even trying to repurpose Alimit as flood control and that has caught the attention of the DOE given the flooding Cagayan had last year or two years ago. 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,” said Rubio.