By Hilda Austria
SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan – A senior official from the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) provided assurance on Wednesday regarding the uninterrupted provision of electricity to the grid and irrigation system despite the prevailing El Niño conditions.
Tommy Valdez, the Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility of SRPC, emphasized in an interview that the power plant is presently supplying the required 115 megawatts to the grid while operating at a mass flow rate.
“The cropping season has concluded, and irrigation has not been compromised,” he noted.
Valdez said the hydro power plant was able to irrigate 36,000 to 40,000 hectares of land in the last dry cropping season amid the dry spell.
“More than enough for irrigation requirements,” he said.
He said the water level of the dam’s reservoir is currently at 230.45 meters above sea level (masl), almost at its critical level of 225 masl.
The plant may even reach the critical level and maintenance shutdown may be done on May 6, earlier than the set schedule in the third week of next month, but Valdez assured power consumers that this is a normal activity for the plant during hot season when energy from coal-fired power plants are more relied upon.
“We are mandated to have maintenance shut down for one week or two. But our re-regulating pond will run for river ecology,” he said.
Valdez said they are hoping for rainwaters in the coming months to elevate the level of the water reservoir in time for the wet cropping season of the farmers. (PNA)
