IPs allow ‘first of its kind’ hydro electric project in Benguet

July 14, 2018 Headlines

KIBUNGAN, BENGUET – Indigenous peoples in this municipality thumbed up the proposed 500-megawatt Pump Storage Hydro Electric Project, the first-of-its kind renewable energy facility in Northern Luzon.
A consensus was arrived at by the indigenous peoples of the Kibungan Ancestral Domain giving their consent to the project via the government-required Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) process conducted by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
The renewable energy project, according to the proponent Cordillera Hydro Electric Power Corporation (Coheco) Badeo Corporation, will usher in countless benefits to the environment and development in the area because aside from very minute minimal impact to the environment, the project will generate 500 megawatts of power.
The 345-megawatt San Roque Multi-purpose Dam built in 1998 in San Manuel, Pangasinan which has head waters along the Agno River in Benguet has submerged a vast area both in Benguet and Pangasinan, while the Ambuclao dam in Bokod, also in Benguet built in the 70’s submerged indigenous villages.
The P35-billion Kibungan Pump Storage Hydro Electric Project will make a major contribution to the country’s source of energy, livelihood and tourism in Benguet even in the remotest communities in Kibungan.
The project will utilize an impounding facility on a 15.2-hectare land located on a higher elevation, and capable of producing more power that will emanate from the pressure created by the higher source of water.
The “strength” of 3,200 cubic meters of water all coming from the Amburayan river to sustain the project, according to the builders, will not deprive the community of their supply.
With the huge step obtained when the indigenous peoples in Kibungan, Benguet consented of the one-of-its-kind project, the proponent Coheco Badeo Corporation said, a new dawn is awaiting Benguet perhaps as the newest “hub” for renewable energy in the Cordillera, aside from its tourism potential as an eco-tourism destination. ACE ALEGRE / ABN