AC Energy Holdings Inc., the power-development arm of the Ayala group, will build up a war chest of “close to P40 billion” to deliver an additional 1,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020.
AC Energy President and CEO Eric Francia said funding would come from a combination of internally generated cash and borrowing.
“A lot of it will come from internal funding. We can start tapping debt also,” he said.
Ayala Corp. has already committed close to P40 billion of investments in AC Energy, and is expected to increase its investments over the next five years.
AC Energy is expected to end up with “close to P80 billion” in power-related investments by 2020. This includes the additional “close to P40 billion” mentioned by Francia on Wednesday. AC Energy already announced last September it achieved its target to build 1,000 MW of power capacity, making it ready to deliver an additional 1,000 MW by 2020.
By 2020, Francia said AC Energy’s share in the group would have reached “at least 10 percent.” On its own, AC Energy expects to post P5 billion in earnings by 2020, he said.
In 2015 Francia said AC Energy made P2.5 billion in profit.
“With 1,000 MW in attributable capacity, AC Energy is emerging as a major contributor to the country’s energy resource. It has started to contribute positively to our bottomline and we expect it to be a significant component of Ayala’s portfolio in the coming years,” Ayala Corp. President and COO Fernando Zobel de Ayala said in a statement.
To achieve the additional 1,000-MW capacity by 2020, AC Energy is looking at developing renewable- energy (RE) sources.
“The renewable-energy revolution is upon us and we are gearing up the organization for this new reality. We will also harness synergies across the Ayala Group to achieve this goal,” Francia said. “We expect renewable energy to be more competitive over the next five years, and this will be good from a sustainability, diversification and resiliency standpoint.”
AC Energy will focus on enhancing efficiencies of its operating plants, as well as expanding its existing platforms. It will also seek out acquisitions and develop greenfield projects, both in the Philippines and select Southeast Asian markets. The company will also be an active participant in retail electricity, having secured its Retail Electricity Supplier (RES) license in September.
AC Energy now has seven thermal, wind and solar assets: the 604-MW GNPower Mariveles and the 668-MW GNPower Dinginin in Bataan; the 244-MW South Luzon Thermal Energy in Batangas; the 552-MW GNPower Kausawagan in Lanao del Norte; the 81-MW North Luzon Renewables and the 52-MW NorthWind Power in Ilocos Norte; and the 18-MW Montesol in Bais, Negros Oriental. Five of the plants are operational, which collectively deliver about 1,000 MW of power to the grid. The two plants under construction (GNPower Kauswagan and GNPower Dinginin) will add another 1,200 MW to the grid in 2018-2019.
AC Energy entered the market in 2011.