MALOLOS CITY—Korea Water Resources Corp.’s (K-Water) impending acquisition of the power generation facility of Angat Dam is not necessarily for profit purposes.
It was meant to help the Philippines achieve further progress, a ranking official of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) said. This came as K-water tried to hasten acquisition of the Angat River Hydro-electric Power Plant (ARHEPP) in Norzagaray, Bulacan have a formal turn-over of facilities before the end of the year.
Engineer Rodolfo German, ARHEPP general manager, said that a K-Water executive is not interested in profit.
“They told me, it is their way of helping the Philippines achieve further progress,” German said. “They also want stronger ties with the Philippines by providing assistance.” German’s disclosure came when asked on the profitability of Korean investment on ARHEPP which generates a maximum of 246 megawatts of electricity when in full operation.
However, the 47-year old ARHEPP had failed to generate that amount of electricity in the last 10 years. Sources said ARHEPP usually generates electricity way below its maximum capacity due to the multi-purpose function of the Angat Dam, which also supplies 97 percent of the potable water requirement of Metro Manila.
In an earlier interview, Engineer Romualdo Beltran of the Napocor said they cannot operate at full capacity because it would mean utilization of more water that can result into shortage of water in Metro Manila during summer, and unnecessary flooding in Bulacan especially in municipalities lying on the banks of Angat River.
With regard to K-Water’s target to for turnover of facilities before the end of the year, German said that the Koreans want to start immediate rehabilitation of ARHEPP’s instruments. German also confirmed that only one of their four main turbines capable of generating 50 megawatts each is operational.
He said that two are undergoing repair and the other one cannot be operated because the electrical transformer is under repair. “The Koreans will provide additional investments on our machineries and instruments,” German said noting that those machineries are at least 47 years old and need to be replaced with newer ones.
The said investment is not included in the $440.88-million winning bid of K-Water on ARHEPP. German said that K-Water vowed to invest on a multi-million peso weather tracking system along with flood control monitoring system that will be established along the downstream of the Angat River.
