First Gen on track to finish Mindanao hydro projects

MANILA, Philippines - Lopez-owned First Gen Corp. is on track to completing its five hydropower projects in Mindanao, its top official said yesterday.

First Gen unit First Gen Mindanao Hydro Power Corp. received clearance last August from the Department of Energy for the construction of the five projects.

“We’re hoping to start construction by next year,” First Gen president Francis Giles Puno told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a press conference for Sikat II, the Philippines’ representative in the 2013 World Solar Challenge.

He said the company is now doing the final feasibility study and preparing for the access road.

“We’re going through our final feasibility and in all of the projects, we’re looking at starting the construction of an access road because that’s what we need to do further survey,” he said.

He said the company is planning to start construction next year and complete the projects as early as 2016.

The DoE has issued a certificate of commerciality to First Gen’s hydro projects in Bukidnon, namely the eight-megawatt Tumalaong plant, eight-MW Bubunawan project and the 20-MW Tagoloan project.

Other projects are in Agusan del Norte such as the 14-MW Cabadbaran hydropower plant and 30-MW Puyo plant.

Puno earlier said the 30-MW Puyo plant in Agusan del Norte would cost $120 million while the Bubunawan project would cost $100 million. The Cabadbaran project, meanwhile is estimated to cost $40 million.

He also said while First Gen is focused on natural gas power plants, it is also venturing into renewable energy as part of its support to the sector.