LOPEZ-led Energy Development Corp. (EDC) is earmarking P7 billion in capital expenditure (capex) this year mainly to improve the reliability of its steam plants.
After the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Monday, EDC President Richard Tantoco said P3 billion of the programmed capex has been allocated for its 112.5-megawatt (MW) Tongonan geothermal power plant in Leyte.
“One unit is now on shutdown. Another unit will follow. We are changing the whole turbine to increase the output by 10 MW and decrease steam consumption by 9 percent,” said Tantoco, who added maintenance shutdown would last for 110 days.
He said the retrofit of Tongonan’s two units is on track to be completed by the third quarter.
“After the retrofit, it will be as good as new and we expect an increase of up to 10 percent in its total capacity,” he said.
Tantoco said the company will spend P500 million of this year’s capex to upgrade the 125-MW Mahiyao plant.
The company is the largest geothermal producer in the country. It has also expanded to other sources like wind, solar and hydropower. It has a total installed geothermal capacity of 1,169 MW, or 60.9 percent of the country’s 1,918-MW installed geothermal capacity in 2014.
It also operates the Unified Leyte geothermal power facility in the province. It consists of the 125-MW Upper Mahiao plant, the 232.5-MW Matlibog plant, the 180-MW Mahanagdong plant, and the 51-MW Leyte optimization plants.
Tantoco said EDC capex, as well as operational expenses, would be sourced from internally generated funds.
EDC CFO Nestor Vasay said the company will post a “modest single digit” increase in profit and revenue this year after it reported on Monday P3.25 billion in consolidated recurring net income attributable to equity holders (RNIA) of the parent company for the first quarter of the year.
This is 24 percent higher than the P2.63 billion posted during the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues also increased by 6 percent to P9.61billion in the first three months of the year.
The improved performance was primarily driven by higher average prices from its key geothermal units by 9.8 percent and a 39.4-percent increase in generation volumes of its Unified Leyte geothermal plants and Burgos wind farm, respectively.
“This year would be more flattish, slightly better than 2016’s revenue and income. I would say modest single-digit growth because as we’ve said toward the end of the year, there’s a lot of maintenance unlike last year,” Vasay said.