Tabuk City sanggunian backs hydro power project

Estanislao C. Albano, Jr.


TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) here has indorsed the proposed 17MW Upper Tabuk Hydropower Project (UTHP) to be located in barangay Dupag, this city.
The UTHP is a mini-hydropower development with a reservoir along the Tanudan River within the ancestral domain of the Minanga tribe with a proposed maximum capacity of 17 megawatts. The consumption of the province is four megawatts.
The project involves the construction of a 35.4 meter high dam which will create a reservoir of around 20 hectares and a total storage capacity of around five million cubic meters.
In a resolution passed this week, the SP took cognizance of the number of benefits to be derived from the operation of the project foremost of which are the revenues that will accrue to Dupag and this city as hosts and likewise the reduction of the electric rates in the province by as much as P150.00 per kilowatt.
In his presentation before the SP, Engr. Daniel Peckley, Jr., project team leader and secretary/treasurer of the project proponent Kalinga Hydropower, Inc. (KHI), informed that annually, the Minanga tribe and the Tabuk LGU will stand to gain P1,000,582.00 and P2,700.714.00, respectively, through national wealth tax, corporate community tax, business permit and the regulations of the Department of Energy (DOE) regarding benefits for host communities.
Aside from the taxes, the Dupag LGU and the Tabuk LGU will annually get total assistance of P750,582.00 and P600,714.00, respectively, in the form of funds for electrification, electric subsidy, development and livelihood, watershed and health development.
Peckley also said the project will bring in infrastructure facilities, livelihood projects and educational assistance to the Minanga tribe.
The SP also took into account the fact that with revenues coming from the hydropower project, the Tabuk LGU will be able to recover in one year the P2,000,000.00 it has invested in the project in 2008.
The amount was used for the conduct of the pre-feasibility study, installation of staff gauge along the Tanudan River and rainfall monitoring station and study and application for grant from the Millenium Challenge Corporation.
The indorsement is one of the four remaining requirements for application of Development Service Contract with the DOE. The others are signed memoranda of agreement with prospective buyers of the generated power, complete comprehensive feasibility study and a consummated deal with the selected investor.
Peckley said that the KHI has already initiated talks with several interested investors, with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines for the provision of ancillary services and with the Kalinga-Apayao Electric Cooperative and the Cagayan Electric Cooperative I as power buyers.
Peckley told the legislators that P2B is needed to undertake the project.
The KHI has already complied with the other requirements including Certificate of Compliance with the Free, Prior and Informed Consent process from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Hydropower Service Contract from the DOE and water permit from the National Water Resources Board.