Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), through its subsidiary Philippine HydroPower Corporation, is to consolidate its power interests by buying Northern Mini Hydro for P395M (US$8M).
Northern Mini Hydro owns and operates three hydro plants in Benguet province with a combined capacity of 12MW. In 1999, the plants produced 51GWh and exceeded that output in 2000.
Northern Mini has contracts to supply power to the National Power Corporation (Napocor) until 2018, at rates set at a discount to Napocor’s average grid rate for Luzon. A small portion of its output is sold to the Benguet Electric Co-operative to provide power for the Central Bakun and Ampusongan communities.
AEV also owns the Hydro Electric Development Corporation (Hedcor), which operates nine plants (eight in Bunguet and one in Davao) with a combined capacity of 26MW.
All the plants owned by both companies are run-of-river schemes.