First Gen investing more in geothermal power
First Gen Corp., a Lopez-led renewable energy producer, intends to allocate more capital to its geothermal business to upgrade and replace facilities that have been in operation for over four decades.
Francis Giles Puno, First Gen president and chief operating officer, said that while they are set to complete drilling activities this year, the company is gearing up for a new round of investments to build a resilient renewable baseload network.
“Next year, there’ll be more investment because when you think about it, the assets themselves are over 40 years old,” he told reporters in an interview.
“So we’re in the process of upgrading some of the other facilities and also putting in newer facilities…,” the executive added.
The group—which also has hydro, solar and wind projects through its subsidiary Energy Development Corp.—still considers geothermal its “most important feature of renewable energy.”
Puno said they may start with its facility in Leyte, which has a gross capacity of more than 700 megawatts (MW).
He noted that the plant was already “fully depreciated.”
“So we are now in an opportunity to say, let’s rebuild the facility, the right facility, so that in the next 40 years, we’ll be able to generate more renewable baseload coming from geothermal,” he said.
Aside from Leyte, First Gen will also work on its power plant in Dumaguete City in Negros Island.
Based on its website, EDC’s geothermal capacity is at 1,189.34 MW. Including wind, solar and hydro, the company has a total of 1,484.13 MW of renewable energy capacity.
Meanwhile, Puno said that while First Gen did not secure the 796.64-MW Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan hydroelectric facility in Laguna—the Aboitiz-led consortium won the auction—the group has been equipping its facilities with battery energy storage systems.
“The advantage of battery storage and solar is that prices continue to go down,” he said.
In the first quarter, First Gen saw its profit dip by 4 percent to $77 million (P4.49 billion) against the previous $81 million (P4.52 billion).
