The Malita municipal government in Davao del Sur province in Philippines plans to construct a 1.5MW run-of-river Malita mini-hydropower plant at a total of PHP311m ($7.59m).
Commercial production at the plant is expected to commence in the April-June quarter of 2013 to meet the growing domestic demand for electricity.
Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) has agreed to provide a PHP283m ($6.87m) loan for the development of the project, while the government is expected to plough in an additional PHP28.3m ($0.68m), reported Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Loan from DBP is subject to the approval of a 25-year power purchase agreement with Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Dasureco).
In a letter to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) earlier in 2012, Malita emphasized the approval of the agreement as the key towards its compliance requirements with DBP and the project’s implementation.
The regulatory commission had consequently granted a provisional approval for the power agreement that enables Malita to supply 600,000KWh to Dasureco each month.