In 2019, Magis Energy Holdings was established to push forward a green agenda of providing a healthy energy mix to the country’s power industry. Its goal was an ambitious one – to help the country wean away from its dependence on coal and fossil fuels for its ever-growing power requirements.
In February 2020, and in the midst of a pandemic, Magis Energy broke ground on Taft Hydro, a run-of river hydroelectric power plant situated in Barangay San Rafael in Taft, Eastern Samar. Together with the Taft Hydroenergy Corporation, Magis Energy was able to speed up the construction of the 16-megawatt plant which will soon be completed in the latter part of 2021, or just a year and a half after it broke ground. The project has broken the record for being the fastest hydro construction of its capacity in the Philippines,which is a tremendous achievement for this young company.
In addition to Taft Hydro, Magis Energy has also taken on the Matuno River Hydroelectric Power Plant, another run-of-hydro plant located in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya. Construction of this project that also started in 2019 is also slated to be completed in late 2021. The 8-megawatt Matuno River Hydroelectric Power Plant will provide energy and much-needed irrigation to the surrounding communities.
Magis Energy started from a realization by its founders who saw how remote communities all over the Philippines were left out in terms of progress and development because of the lack of access to sustainable, reliable and cost-efficient power supply. Backed by almost 50 years of experience in the construction industry and energy sector among its founders, Magis Energy started in 2019 to help bridge this gap and to maximize the country’s vast renewable energy sources especially in the countryside and among its rural communities.
The Magis Energy team envisions a company that will develop thriving communities using renewable and sustainable energy resources. Its mission is to be in the forefront of sustainably empowering local communities by developing renewable energy projects while providing more opportunities to expand local livelihood.
As a team that started almost at the same time as the onset of the Corona Virus pandemic, Magis Energy has been proving itself as a resilient, persistent, adaptable and dynamic team capable of nimbly navigating through the new normal. It prides itself as being part of making hydroelectric energy a reality and a norm in the Philippines.
The Philippines has numerous bodies of water crisscrossing the archipelago, and while we enjoy a relatively temperate climate, we have also been on the pathway of super typhoons and habagat that bring in a lot of rain, thereby allowing the production of hydroelectric power almost year-round. Taft Hydro and Matuno River take advantage of these factors, and in turn, Magis Energy Holdings sees these hydroelectric projects as a great entry point into the renewable energy industry.
Going green and providing renewable energy has also made possible Magis Energy’s impact on the communities around its development sites. With the construction of its two initial projects, over a thousand jobs have been created where people who have been previously engaged in illegal logging, kaingin, and subsistence charcoal making to make their living have left behind these environmentally damaging activities when they were employed at the hydro project site. Moreover, the women have also been organized to operate a cooperative that would provide nourishment for the workers while teaching its members to venture into entrepreneurship independently.
The larger economic multiplier is the sufficient power supply and stable voltage that will be provided to each of the project site service area. In the case of Taft Hydro, the entire island of Samar, and Eastern Samar in particular will be significantly impacted. Eastern Samar which faces the Pacific Ocean has vast marine resources and is tagged as part of the Tuna Super Highway. Without its own power generation source in the island, fisherfolk have no access to cold storage facilities, and are constrained to get their supply of ice from Tacloban City, which is three to four hours away. Making power available to the area will then allow for investments in cold storage facilities, processing plants, and even markets and tourism sites. Moving forward and as we see travel restrictions easing, the Taft hydroelectric plant and the soon-to-be-opened Gabriella Falls will be set up as major tourism destinations in Samar, providing not just livelihood opportunities for the locals, but will help bring in sustainable and inclusive development to the island and its people.
In Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, the availability of hydro power from Matuno River will allow locals to enjoy more reliable and cost-efficient energy and more importantly, to benefit from the irrigation canals and water resources from the project. During construction, the company has provided local employment and has been an engaged and involved member of the community. Through its employees and management, Matuno River has organized the annual Brigada Eskwela for the youth, organized feeding programs, and provided utility vehicle to the host barangay that is being used for a variety of purposes. .
In both projects and as an organization, Magis Energy Holdings is actively working with entities such as the Gawad Kalinga, as well as other peoples’ organizations to aid social entrepreneurship and build homes for the people. This is part of its mission to provide access to renewable energy, but more so, to involve and include the communities hosting these projects in the growth and development of the project and the company itself.
As climate change becomes an impending outcome in the future, we see the use of renewable energy in the Philippines rising even more in the coming years. As the renewable energy industry flourishes, Magis Energy plans to be at the forefront of developing hydroelectric projects across the Philippines while the Department of Energy hopes to have 35% of the country’s power generation sourced from renewable energy in 2030.
Venturing into renewable energy is the only choice for a better future. Going hydroelectric and going green is the answer to the dare of the youth represented by Greta Thunberg at the 2019 United Nations Climate Summit when she said, “How dare you?!”
For Magis Energy, the answer has been and will always be this, we dare to bring on change. We dare to do projects that will help reduce the country’s dependence on fossil and non-renewable energy. We dare to invest on projects that will support the national and global movement to minimize carbon emissions.
Magis is a Latin word that means “more” or “greater”. We share in the philosophy of this word as an aspiration and an inspiration to do more and be greater.
We dare to invest in our future.
