Hydropower plant in Vizcaya town on track to start ops this year –developer

Renewable energy firm Matuno River Development Corp. (MRDC) on Tuesday announced that its 8-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric power plant in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya was on track to commence commercial operations before the end of the year.

In a statement, MRDC said the run-of-river project was expected to feed power to the grid while also providing irrigation to the farmers in Nueva Vizcaya.

The plant is located along the Matuno River, a tributary of the Magat Dam which has a large watershed area of 590 square kilometers.

MRDC said the plant was built utilizing European equipment from Global Hydro Energy GmbH in Austria.

The hydroelectric power plant will be connected to the Bayombong Substation of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), where its expected output of 8MW will go towards augmenting the power supply needs of Luzon especially with the unpredictable outages of the older and less efficient coal power plants, the company said.

“The project is a realization of the company’s plan to push forward the Department of Energy’s agenda towards making renewable energy a significant part of the country’s energy mix,” said MRDC president Armando Diaz.

“The company is very much optimistic and bullish in our push for green energy which we are proud to say, defies the limitations of the current pandemic and its restrictions,” Diaz said.

MRDC is a project company under Magis Energy Holdings Corp.

Magis Energy is a Filipino company established in 2019 to seek opportunities in the renewable energy sector, particularly in underserved rural communities.

Magis Energy is also the owner of another hydroelectric power project, Taft Hydro Energy Corp., with a soon to operate 16MW plant in Eastern Samar. — DVM, GMA News