Aboitiz Power Corp. (AP) plans to expand its Sibulan hydroelectric power plant in Davao this year. During the launch of the firm’s environmental social networking game on Wednesday, Luis Miguel Aboitiz, AP senior vice president, said the company would expand the 42.5-megawatt hydro plant by 13.6 megawatts. “We plan to start around the middle of the year. It takes two years to finish but that is still dependent on the weather,” he said.

AP’s generation business accounts for a total of 2,577 megawatts, of which more than 1,200 megawatts are from its geothermal and hydro assets. Aboitiz said the company’s plan to expand the Sibulan hydro plant will likely be completed ahead of its proposed Tamugan hydro facility in Davao. The Sibulan facility consists of two cascading run-of-river hydropower plants that harness water coming from the Sibulan and Baroring Rivers to run the turbines that generate electricity.

Aboitiz said the company will continue with the proposed Tamugan project, scaling it down to 11 megawatts from the original 27.5 megawatts. AP shares rose to P27.35 apiece on Wednesday from P27 the day before. (source)