Greenfield plants and the elevated prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) boosted Ayala-led ACEN Corporation profits in the first half this year to P4.2 billion, up 94 percent from P2.2 billion in a comparative period last year.
The company’s consolidated revenues had also grown 28 percent to P20.5 billion versus last year’s P16 billion within the same January-June stretch.
In a press statement, the company emphasized that its income was “driven by the boost in net generation due to the stronger wind regime throughout the period and higher operating capacity with testing and commissioning of new projects, which allowed ACEN to achieve a net selling merchant position, amid strong prices in the Philippine Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.”
According to ACEN President and CEO Eric Francia, “our growth continues to be robust midway through 2023,” adding that “we've made considerable progress with the continued ramp-up of our projects, helping provide much-needed supply to the Philippines and across the region.”
He likewise cited that the company’s investments had grown 19 percent to P130.7 billion, strengthening its asset base to P242.7 billion. Projects that are under construction hover at 2,700MW.
On the firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), this climbed 20 percent to P9.4 billion; with its Philippine operations contributing P4.1 billion.
It qualified that for EBITDA on international ventures, this escalated 178-percent to P5.5 billion, and that was mainly stimulated by “stronger wind resources and the ongoing commissioning of the 521-megawattdc New England solar farm in Australia, supported by carbon credit sales in Vietnam.”
Cora Dizon, chief financial officer of ACEN, said “we continue to expand our funding sources and optimize ACEN’s capital structure, while keeping track of our leverage ratios, as we aggressively pursue new investments in line with our growth aspirations."
Within the first semester, the company similarly reported that its attributable renewables production in the country had expanded 21 percent to 2,052 gigawatt-hours (GWh), specifying that this was partly due to "eased transmission congestion,” a dilemma that it has been grappling with for years.
For new capacities coming on stream, the latest addition to the company’s operating renewable energy portfolio had been its 160 MW Pagudpud wind farm in Ilocos Norte which has been at its commissioning phase; then its 44 MWdc second phase of the Arayat-Mexico solar farm in Pampanga.
“Renewables generation from Philippine operations increased by a noteworthy 30-percent to 568 GWh, on the back of a strong wind regime, and with the commissioning of the country’s largest wind farm to date,” the company stressed.
On international operations, ACEN’s scale of generation topped 1,483 GWh, and that was likewise reinforced by “strong wind resources in Vietnam, alongside improved capacity factors in Indonesia, and the ramp-up of commissioning offtake for the 521 MWdc first phase of New England solar in New South Wales, Australia.”