Listed firm Aboitiz Power Corporation will be shifting most of its power investments into the renewable energy (RE) development terrain in the next decade, with strategic focus on key markets in the Philippines and overseas, according to company president and chief executive officer Emmanuel V. Rubio.
The kick-off point of their planned massive installations will be a 50-megawatt utility-scale solar project in Central Luzon that will be advanced to construction phase as targeted by the second half of this year.
In addition, the company recently completed the commissioning of two wind met masts for a targeted wind farm project in Pangasinan.
On top of the targeted installations in the Philippine RE sector, Rubio similarly indicated that they are looking for new investment prospect in Vietnam – but he has not specified yet if that will be an acquisition or if it would be a greenfield development.
“We will pursue our international aspirations – with focus on renewable energy on high-growth, geographic markets. And ultimately, we aim to transition our portfolio mix to an aspirational target of 50:50 Cleanergy and thermal capacities,” he stressed.
Rubio qualified that the investment trajectory of the company will lean on “key strategic shifts that we’re looking to achieve by 2030.” By that timeframe, he noted that the company’s overall portfolio will roughly double to 9,000 megawatts from its current attributable capacity of 4,429 megawatts.
And in line with the firm’s goal for a balanced mix of 50-percent thermal and 50-percent ‘Cleanergy’ capacities, the company chief executive emphasized that RE will feature prominently in the projects to be cast and advanced to commercial fruition in the coming years; while ventures into ‘thermal power facilities ’ will just be pursued selectively.
“To serve the ever-increasing energy needs of the country, we will continue increasing our generation portfolio but with a significant shift to environmental sustainability,” Rubio expounded.
He further noted that “we will selectively build baseload capacities with either coal or gas, because we still have those options especially in our project sites.”
The company said its overall aspiration is to sustain its current standing as the industry player with the biggest RE portfolio to-date, in terms of installed capacity which hovers at 1,500 megawatts from its hydro, geothermal and solar farm assets.
Relative to the Aboitiz Power’s 10-year growth investment strategy, Rubio stated “last year was a year of plans, but this time around, we’re going to put those plans into action.”
The company emphasized that beyond the 815MW service contracts already secured from the Department of Energy (DOE) and are now in various phases of developments, it is also currently “identifying and evaluating additional pipeline projects, most of which are based in Luzon.” (MMV)