BUGUIAS, Benguet – The 3-megawatt Man-asoc minihydro of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) is ready for commercial operation once it will be issued the requisite permits from the regulatory agencies.
BENECO general manager Engr. Melchor S. Licoben stated that once the renewable energy plant will be given the go-signal to commercially operate, BENECO member-consumer-owners (MCOs) and the host indigenous peoples (IPs) and the barangay and municipal governments concerned can also start enjoying the benefits due them pursuant to the signed memorandum of agreement among the concerned parties.
He added that the operation of the minihydro power plant was already synchronized with the transmission facilities of the State-owned National grid Corporation (NGCP) and what is awaited is the issuance of the green light by the regulatory agencies, such as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the Department of energy (DOE), to formalize its commercial operation.
The BENECO official claimed that the upcoming commercial operation of the Man-asok minihydro power plant is a dream come true for one of the country’s top performing rural electric cooperative in its strategic goal to venture into power generation, especially from local sources of renewable energy, to help in achieving its primary goal of offering cheap and quality power to consumers and sustainable benefits for the host communities through the grant of subsidy and other energy-related programs under the Energy Regulations No. 1-94 and to maximize the available environmentally-friendly sources of power for the sustainable preservation and protection of the environment.
Engr. Olive O. Bete, BENECO’s executive service and regulatory compliance officer, disclosed that in October 2009, the service contract for the Man-asok minihydro power plant was signed between the energy department and the electric cooperative while the detailed feasibility study of the project was completed in August 2010.
Moreover, the detailed engineering design of the minihydro plant was completed in January 2013 that paved the way for the conduct of the consultative community assembly in the host communities spearheaded by the free and prior informed consent team of the Cordillera office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples on successive dates and in different sites between March 2013 and January 2014 that paved the way for the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the indigenous peoples organization and the electric cooperative in support of the said project.
However, Bete admitted that the implementation of the project was delayed caused by several factors including the effects of Typhoon Ompong in 2018 and the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic but these were eventually hurdled that allowed the project to be completed and is now ready for commercial operation upon the issuance of the appropriate permits by the regulatory agencies.
