First Gen, Singaporean firm in tug-of-war for giant Ecija dam project

CABANATUAN CITY – An energy company which owns and operates the Pantabangan-Masiway Hydroelectric Complex, is locked up in a tug-of-war with a Singaporean firm over the P13.6-billion Balintingon Reservoir Multi Purpose Project (BRMPP) that can potentially irrigate 63,000 hectares of agricultural lands in southern Nueva Ecija and portions of Central Luzon.

          National Irrigation Administration Administrator Antonio Nangel said that the First Gen Hydro Power Corp. (FGHPC) is also keen on constructing the BRMPP even as the NIA Board has approved the application of Kaltimex Energy (Singapore), Ltd. (KES) to undertake the dam project subject to certain conditions.

          “First Gen has indicated it also wants Balintingon,” Nangel said, even as a technical working group (TWG) has been created to evaluate the KES. The TWG is chaired by deputy administrator for engineering and operations Robert Suguitan and is composed of representatives from the engineering, operations and legal department of the agency.

          KES and FGHPC have figured prominently in the recent wave of power interruptions in Pantabangan town. KES was tapped last year by the municipal government to rehabilitate the local government-run Pantabangan Municipal Electric Services (Pames).

          FGHPC cut off power to Pames over its allaged failure to pay power bills from July to December 2012 worth P8.7 million.  

          Lawyer Genever Dionio, chief of the NIA’s legal department, said the approval of the KES’s application was on condition that it should submit documents showing its legal, technical and financial capability to undertake the BRMPP.

          He said the KES has already submitted  the required documents. “We have yet to go over the documents but we will do so soon,” he said.

          The feasibility study for the BRMPP was submitted to the NIA by Sunwest Water and Electric Company (Suweco) last October for its evaluation.

          However, Suweco president Jose Silvestre Natividad informed Nangel that his firm has assigned all its rights, title and interest to the feasibility as well as its investment and operation of the power plant to KES, its partner in the preparation of the feasibility study.

          A copy of the seven-page executive summary of Suweco’s  feasibility study for the BRMPP stated that the hydro-electric power project is proposed to be built at the catchment area of the Penaranda-Sumacbao-Chico river systems.

Its potential service area of 63,000 hectares will cover the towns of Cabiao, Gen. Tinio , Penaranda, San Isidro and Sta. Rosa and the cities of Cabanatuan and Gapan, all in Nueva Ecija; San Miguel, San Ildefonso and and San Rafael in Bulacan and Arayat in Pampanga.

          Among the BRMPP’s components are a 138-meter rockfill dam, a spillway designed to cope with flood, a 44-megawatt capacity powerhouse, a concrete weir located seven kilometers downstream of the main dam and new irrigation facilities.

          The study estimated the entire project, whose economic life is 50 years, to cost P13.6 million of which P10 million is the direct cost. It has an economic internal rate of return of 21.05%.

          In 1993, the project was estimated to cost only P5 billion then P8.3 billion in 1999.

          The project is expected to produce 119.59 gigawatt-hours of of power and P1.6 billion worth of electric benefits annually. Aside from irrigation and hydro-electric power generation, the project is also expected to generate fish production worth P280 million annually.

          The study also said that the BRMPP would ensure year-round irrigation to 41,500 hectares of land, resulting in annual incremental production of 65,761 tons of paddy rice and 18,035 tons of vegetables.

          The project was initially formulated in the Irrigation Development Plan for Central Luzon in 1976 which was based on a reconnaissance study conducted by NIA and Electroconsult of Italy. It was conceived to take over the role of the Aurora-Penaranda Irrigation Project which supplied southern Nueva Ecija with irrigation.

          Aside from the KES and the FGHPC, the long-delayed dam project is being eyed by several companies, including the California International Ltd. (CalEnergy), the same American firm which built the giant Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP). – Manny Galvez