Philippine firm eyes loan for mini-hydro plants

SUWECO is now finalizing its P4.0 billion loan for the construction of four mini-hydro power plants.

Having been tapped as lead arranger, Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines, through its president and COO Conrado A. Gloria Jr. noted that they will “structure the terms of the project financing” as well as organize its marketing amongst a syndicate of universal and commercial banks.

“We aim to raise P4.0 billion which represents 70-percent of the project cost of the four hydro projects,” Gloria said.

The mini-hydro projects will have an aggregate capacity of 31.9 megawatts, but are geographically-diversified in Luzon and Visayas. These cover the 6.0MW project in Penablanca in Cagayan Valley; 15MW in Libacao, Aklan; 1.5MW in Bansud, Mindoro; and 9.4MW in Bugasong, Antique.

Although it is being dwarfed by the more established and big-ticket players in the multi-billion dollar power industry, SUWECO noted that it is keen on establishing its niche first in the development of smaller-scale RE resources.

For its specified four hydro projects, SUWECO emphasized that the forecast annual generation will be one million kilowatt hours.

“Preparatory activities such as construction of access roads to the hydropower projects are ongoing,” the company has noted.

The completion targets for the Cagayan, Aklan and Antique projects will be third and fourth quarters of 2016; while the Mindoro venture is expected to be on stream earlier in 2014.

SUWECO is intending to pursue wind-based power facilities.

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