San Roque Dam (Philippines)

San Roque Dam (Philippines)

The San Roque Dam, operated under San Roque Multipurpose Project (SRMP) is a 200 meters tall, 1.2 kilometer long embankment dam on the Agno River. It spans the municipalities of San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan and is nearly 200 km north of Metro Manila.

The dam impounds a reservoir with a surface area of about 12.8 square kilometers extending North into the municipality of Itogon, Benguet. A gated spillway protects the dam from overtopping. Each wet season, the run-off is stored for later release via water turbines to generate power and irrigate crops.

Agno River is the third largest river in the Philippines with a total length of 221 kilometers and a drainage basin at the Project site of 1,225 square kilometers. The river originates in the Cordillera Mountains, initially flows from north to south, divides into several channels in the flat central plain of Luzon and meanders westerly through the provinces of Pangasinan and Tarlac before emptying into the Lingayen Gulf.

San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) financed and constructed the SRMP under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the National Power Corporation (NPC) on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. SRPC substantially completed the SRMP at midnight, February 14, 2003, at which time its peaking power, irrigation, flood control and enhanced water quality benefits became available to the surrounding regions, which include the Northwest Luzon Economic Growth Quadrangle. In reality, all but its power benefits have been available since mid-2002 when the dam and spillway were completed.

Ownership of the dam and spillway was transferred to NPC upon construction completion, as it contributed funds for the non-power components on behalf of several agencies. SRPC will own and operate the power generating facilities for 25 years, after which their ownership transfers to NPC.