First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPHC), a member of the Lopez Group, is kicking off the operation of seven power plants worth P29.3 billion this year through Energy Development Corporation (EDC).
During the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting, FPHC President Francis Giles B. Puno said EDC, the geothermal subsidiary of FPHC’s First Gen Corporation, is building 83 MW (megawatt) of new geothermal power plants and 40 Mwh (megawatt hour) of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to be commissioned in 2024 in anticipation of the increased steam production.
He added that, EDC is also increasing its geothermal energy capacity through a major 40-well drilling campaign over the next three years.
“This effort will reinforce our ability to supply 24-hour baseload renewable energy, and will require EDC to mobilize seven drilling rigs, up from the usual two, to be conducted simultaneously,” said Puno.
EDC will start commercial operation of seven new power facilities which will be completed by the end of the year.
Of the seven, four are geothermal power plants with a combined capacity of 82.6 MW, while the remaining three are BESS projects with 40 MWh of total capacity.
Puno added that the new geothermal projects will require P24 billion in investments; and the BESS projects, another P5.3 billion, or a total of P29.3 billion.
The bulk of the funding for the projects is coming from the P60 billion that EDC set aside under its capital expenditure (capex) program last year.
“We completed the 29-MW binary plant–Palayan and it just started operating right when there’s a need for supply. That’s new capacity that’s come in,” noted Puno.
He added that, “We continue to invest. Half of the P60 billion capex goes to drilling, the other half goes to new builds. Geothermal is complicated, you have to build new wells and then work over existing wells.”
The P6.7-billion Palayan geothermal plant, one of the seven new power projects of the Lopez-owned firm, is located inside EDC’s Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal facility in Bicol.
Meanwhile, the P2.9-billion, 5.6-MW geothermal power plant in Bago City, Negros Occidental, is set to commence operation in the third quarter of this year.
Two other geothermal power projects — the P6.6-billion, 20-MW Tanawon power plant also located in BacMan and the P7.8-billion, 28-MW Mahanagdong plant in EDC’s existing Leyte facilities — will begin operating by the fourth quarter of 2024.
On the other hand, the three BESS projects will go on commercial operation by the end of 2024. These are the P2.2-billion, 20-MWh BacMan BESS in Bicol; the P1.5-billion, 10-MWh Tongonan BESS in Leyte; and the P1.6-billion, 10-MWh Negros BESS.
“We hope that adding these modest capacities into the grid from clean energy sources will help ease our country’s need for more power supply without creating stress to the environment,” Puno said.