By Myrna M. Velasco Garcia-led firm Vivant Corporation had ended 2019 breaking into ₱2.0-billion net income after tax (NIAT) level due to brisk performance of their power generation portfolio, according to a top company executive. As noted by Emil Andre M. Garcia, chief operating officer of Vivant Energy, “for the first time, there’s a good sense we could make it, we could beak the ₱2.0-billion mark… The numbers are still being finalized, but it was a good year.” The income drivers, he said, had been Therma Visayas facility in which the company has a minority stake; and their Bauang diesel plant which has an ancillary services contract with system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. The ₱2.0-billion financial performance last year, Garcia noted is corporation level, although that is still mostly attributed to energy business portfolio because the water venture is just at its starting point. With improving bottom line, he indicated that the company’s board of directors had also green-lighted over ₱1.0-billion capital expenditure (capex) for pipelined greenfield power projects this year. These include prospective installations in Puerto Princesa and El Nido, Palawan for aggregate capacity of 30 megawatts; then another 16 megawatts in Marinduque province. The company qualified though that all these ventures are subject to competitive selection process (CSP) by their host distribution utilities, but in case the company wins in the bidding, Vivant Energy is prepared to inject warranted capital outlay. “We’re joining the bid for PALECO (Palawan Electric Cooperative); there’s also an invitation to bid for El Nido, which we’ll join as well. We know Marinduque, and we’re part of the Marinduque bid,” Garcia stressed. He emphasized that if the company corners one or two projects, it is targeted that these ventures will certainly break ground this year. Another power project that is advancing to construction phase this year is a 23MW facility, the chunk of the capacity of which is covered by a 15-year power supply agreement with Bantayan Island Electric Cooperative (BANELCO) in Cebu.