Lopez-led First Gen Corporation is lining up massive investments of $20 billion, approximately equivalent to P1.123 trillion, until year 2030 to sustain its market share of 20 percent in terms of kilowatt-hour production to serve the growing electricity needs of Filipinos.

The seven-year humongous investment plan is also in keeping with the energy demand of the domestic economy and the support the decarbonization goals set by the Department of Energy.

“The reason why we put it as a 2030 target is: we’re aligning it with the Department of Energy’s forecasted demand,” said First Gen President and COO Francis Giles B. Puno during a press briefing Tuesday, May 17.

The $20 billion capital will be used to invest in projects identified in the company’s investment roadmap. These include additional 1,000 megawatts of onshore wind farm facilities at its existing concession-areas; 3.0-gigawatt of targeted offshore wind ventures in the Guimaras-Iloilo-Negros Occidental domains; as well as solar farm in Leyte geothermal sites.

Other projects are the planned 1,200-MW Santa Maria gas fired power facility in Batangas; installation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) at its geothermal sites in Bacon-Manito, Southern Negros, Tongonan and Northern Negros; as well as several run-of-river hydro projects.

For the ongoing projects of the company, First Gen Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Emmanuel Antonio P. Singson indicated that the $1.1 billion programmed capital expenditures (capex) this year  includes the $526 million payment for the anticipated turnover of the Casecnan hydroelectric power plant that the company bagged from the May 16, 2023 sale carried out by state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation.

He added that for the continuing projects, the company has set $585 million, of which $403 million would be funneled to the various project-developments of subsidiary Energy Development Corporation (EDC), primarily those on geothermal as well as BESS ventures.

The allocation will likewise cover $90 million for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal which is being advanced to completion by September this year. Another $50 million will bankroll the continued implementation of its Aya pumped storage hydro project; and the rest will be the capex for the gas plants of the conglomerate.

On the company’s 2030 investment roadmap, Puno reiterated that at current pace, they have  “about 20-percent market share of kilowatt-hour production in the system…then, if the government is saying that this is the demand growth, then we will have to keep up with that demand growth.”

He qualified that the escalation on investment is not exactly a unique strategy for their company “that’s growth for everyone, not only First Gen. Even our competitors will probably make that same big investments in order to hit the decarbonized targets.”

Puno similarly apprised the company’s stockholders that “First Gen is keeping abreast of developments in renewable energy technologies, while also exploring the use of nature-based solutions to offset carbon emissions.”

He thus asserted “we are confident that our continued developments in both natural gas and LNG are helping the country wean off coal. We have determined that natural gas serves as a reliable bridge to renewable energy sources, since our natural gas plants can quickly generate power and complement the intermittency of solar and wind power plants,” adding that “this can also complement other renewable energy sources like hydro and geothermal, providing energy security throughout the transition.”

He specified that “as renewable energy becomes more reliable, natural gas will eventually be phased out and replaced with other clean sources such as green hydrogen or decarbonized by emerging technologies, such as carbon capture.”