Lopez-led First Gen Corp. posted a lower net income of $59 million (P3 billion) in the first quarter this year, down by 24.36 percent from $78 billion (P3.8 billion) same period in 2021 due to gas supply problems and bad weather.

Its revenues, meantime, rose by 18 percent to $570 million (P29.1 billion) versus year-ago level of $483 million (P23.2 billion) because of higher electricity sales, elevated fuel prices and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market prices.

First Gen President and COO Francis Giles B. Puno said the company’s profitability took a hit from typhoon Odette which had spillover effect until January this year. The disruption of gas supply from Malampaya field as well as plant outages suffered by its Avion fleet and the generating facilities of subsidiary Energy Development Corp. (EDC) also contributed to the decline in overall profitability.

For the Malampaya gas disruption, Puno conveyed that “this resulted in the importation of expensive liquid fuel,” although he qualified that “to address this recurring issue, the importation of LNG liquefied natural gas) can happen by fourth quarter 2022 when the LNG terminal operates.”

The interim offshore LNG import facility of First Gen is expected to reach commercial operation between latter part of October or early part of November this year as reported to the Department of Energy.

Puno further stated that the leaner figure at the firm’s bottom line was likewise affected by technical glitch-related forced outage at its Avion plant while the EDC generating assets were on unplanned shutdowns when typhoon Odette barreled Visayas in December and its aftermath on power facilities lingered on until January this year.

“Both Avion and EDC were affected by unplanned outages. In EDC’s case, it led to high replacement power costs as typhoon Odette debilitated transmission capacity despite the plants’ ability to produce power. EDC was able to wheel out its power by mid-January,” Puno stressed.

First Gen emphasized that the natural gas and geothermal platforms both suffered from a drop in operating income, specifying that its gas portfolio logged a 27-percent decline in recurring earnings to $38 million (P2 billion) from $52 million (P2.5 billion) in the same January-March period last year.

The power firm added its 420-megawatt San Gabriel power plant “recognized lower capacity fees due to its de-ration from gas supply restrictions,” stating further that “while all four natural gas fired plants benefited from greater electricity sales, higher fuel prices and operating expenses contributed to its lower earnings.”

The company underscored that if non-recurring items are factored in, the attributable net income of the gas platform had been down to $43 million (P2.2 billion) from last year’s heftier earnings of $57 million (P2.8 billion).

On the renewable energy-based power generating assets held by subsidiary EDC, profitability had been slashed by 38-percent to $17 million (P900 million) from more upbeat income of $27 million (P1.3 billion) within the comparative period in 2021.

“The geothermal, wind, and solar platform under EDC likewise suffered from outages, mostly attributable to typhoon Odette that led to transmission constraints, as well as lower wind generation from Burgos for first quarter 2022 in comparison to the same period last year,” the company said.