Agus-Pulangi Hydropower Complex Rehabilitation Project 1

dropped

The Agus-Pulangi Hydropower Complex (APHC) is located on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines archipelago and it consists of seven run-of-river hydropower plants (HPP) with a total installed capacity of about 1,000 megawatts (MW). Six of the plants of the APHC are located on the Agus River. The seventh plant is the Pulangi IV HPP, the first of five HPPs envisaged on the Pulangi River. All of the seven HPPs have reached the age when major rehabilitation is needed to maintain reliable and safe operations. Out of the 1,000 MW of capacity installed, only 600-700 MW is currently available. This is the first of the series of projects for the proposed rehabilitation of APHC which consists of Project 1 and Project 2. Due to the relatively large number of HPPs involved and some of the HPPs requiring longer time to prepare than others, it is determined that Agus IV, V, VI and VII HPPs will be rehabilitated under Project 1, and that Agus I and II and Pulangi IV HPPs will be rehabilitated under Project 2, which will be delivered in 2023 calendar year. The APHC Rehabilitation Project 1 will have the following two components: Component 1. Rehabilitation of the power units and infrastructure of Agus IV, V, VII and VII HPPs. This component will finance rehabilitation works and equipment to restore the rated capacity and improve operational efficiency and safety of the HPPs, and to improve the safety of the dams. The key rehabilitation works and measures to be covered under this component are divided into two subcomponents.Subcomponent 1.1: Rehabilitation of HPP equipment and systems. Most of the proposed rehabilitation measures are commonly applicable to all four HPPs, including rehabilitation of hydro-mechanical and hydro-electrical equipment; modernization of monitoring, control and protection systems; auxiliary mechanical and electrical systems; and switchyards. Except for Agus VI and VII HPPs, where the generation units will involve replacement of major equipment (e.g., generators) due to their age and operational issues, the rehabilitation of hydro-mechanical and hydro-electrical equipment prioritizes refurbishment over replacement.Subcomponent 1.2: Dam safety improvements. A major focus of the dame safety work is the rehabilitation of Agus VI civil structures. The Agus VI dam downstream embankment shell was damaged during an earthquake in 2019 with an increased amount of seepage originated from the vicinity of the contact of the embankment to the spillway concrete structure. The recommended rehabilitation involves the construction of a cut-off wall through the existing clay core zone to the foundation to control the seepage based on geophysical survey and materials investigation. These works are expected to improve Agus VI HPP’s resilience to future earthquakes. For the other dams and dikes, visible damages at their structures were limited to minor cracks in the curbs of the crest roads and similar. The monitoring instrumentation of civil structures, will be installed or upgraded, including particularly for dam safety (such as piezometers, seepage measuring device, geodetic survey monuments, seismic motion recorders, etc.), to strengthen monitoring and reporting.Component 2: Project Management and Technical Assistance. This component will finance the costs of (1) project management and implementation, including the project management unit, panel of experts and the owner’s engineer, and (2) advisory services on (i) power system planning and optimization of Agus cascade operation; (ii) HPP resilience and dam safety assessments, improvements, and dam safety plans preparation; (iii) evaluation of post rehabilitation opportunities and options for Public-Private Partnership investment in APHC; and (iv) establishment of an inclusive pool of trained and skilled talent in NPC.