Around 15 kilometers from the heart of Davao City, a small canal some three feet deep leads to an unassuming 75-year-old building at the end of an old gravel road surrounded by a grove of narra and durian.
This is Hedcor’s Talomo Hydro 2B, a run-ofiver hydro power facility built by the Americans in 1954 just as Davao City was recovering from the destruction wrought by the Second World War.
Perhaps unknown to its many neighbors in the community of Tugbok, this renewable power facility used to supply a huge chunk of the city’s power needs – lighting homes, commercial establishments, and the city’s budding industrial economy then.
Today, Talomo Hydro 2B, together with its sister plants Talomo Hydros 1, 2, 2A, and 3, supply a small yet still significant portion of the needs of the city’s distribution utility, Davao Light and Power Co. The utility’s peak demand was recorded at 421 MW in 2018.
Back in the 1950s when the demand for power in Davao City was only around 1,500 kilowatts, The Talomo Hydro 2B facility alone supplied around 20 percent of the area’s energy requirement. Today, the facility supplies the needs of 40 to 50 households in the city.
Not only is the Talomo Hydro 2B power plant one of Hedcor’s oldest, but it is also one of its smallest facilities in terms of generating capacity. The plant has a capacity of 0.30 megawatts, but can generate 1.7 million kWh of power annually.
Talomo Hydro 2B now pales in comparison to Hedcor’s other plants. Its Sibulan Hydros and Tudaya Hydros collectively generate 57 MW of renewable energy. Hedcor also started operating its youngest 73.33-MW Manolo Fortich hydropower plant in Bukidnon as of last year.
Hedcor’s Talomo Hydro 2B facility is small when compared with bigger generation facilities such as these other run-ofiver systems or Therma South’s 300-MW thermal power plant in Barangay Binugao, Davao City. But the humble plant still contributes to the Mindanao grid, helping meet the power requirements of homes and businesses across the island.
Despite its size, Talomo Hydro 2B is a source of pride for Hedcor and its neighbors in Tugbok.
“We value our assets regardless of size. Whether it’s a facility as small as Talomo Hydro 2B or as big as our youngest plant in Bukidnon, these all contribute to fulfilling our commitment to providing reliable power just the same,” Hedcor President and Chief Operating Officer Carlos Aboitiz said.
More importantly, the presence of the facility in Barangay Tugbok has supported the development of the community over the years. Tugbok enjoys its share of income from Hedcor’s hydropower facilities in the area and benefits from the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.
“Hedcor has been helping the barangay even before I assumed office. It has been helping the community for decades now,” said Tugbok Proper Barangay Captain Wilfredo Anfone, who assumed office in 2013.
Between 2017 and the present, Anfone revealed that Tugbok Proper has received at least P600,000 as its share from the income of Hedcor’s hydropower facilities in the community. (PR)
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