First Gen Corp. is developing a pumped-storage facility to increase the capacity of the 132-megawatt Pantabangan-Masiway hydro plant in Nueva Ecija by another 100 MW.
“The facility is expected to store and generate electricity by moving water between the Pantabangan reservoir and the Masiway reservoir which are situated at different elevations,” First Gen said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
It said the project would allow the full-year operations of the power plant.
First Gen and Energy Development Corp. own 40 percent and 60 percent of First Gen Hydro Power Corp., the owner and operator of the existing Pantabangan-Masiway hydro plant.
First Gen is a subsidiary of First Philippine Holdings Corp., a conglomerate controlled by the Lopez family.
The Pantabangan pumped-hydro storage project is one of First Gen’s projects in the pipeline.
The company will also start the construction of the 32-MW Bubunawan run-of-river hydro project in Mindanao, “subject to clarity in the Philippine market and regulatory regime.”
First Gen has licenses to develop three other run-of-river projects in Mindanao including the 33-MW Tagoloan, the 30-MW Puyo and the Cagayan 1N.
The company is also pursuing its liquefied natural gas terminal project in Batangas and the expansion opportunities in geothermal, wind and solar.
First Gen posted $156 million in recurring attributable net income of the parent company in the first half, up 36 percent from $115 million a year ago, driven by the strong performance of its clean energy platforms.
“First Gen’s focus on clean, low-carbon and renewable energy continues to pay off as our first-semester results overtake last year’s. For the remainder of the year, we expect all the platforms to continue to deliver stable earnings,” First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said earlier.
EDC delivered $49 million (P2.6 billion) in recurring earnings from its geothermal, wind and solar platform in the six-month period, better by $16 million (P900 million) than $33 million (P1.7 billion) in the same period last year as the Unified Leyte and Tongonan geothermal plant operations continued to normalize and deliver higher earnings after recovering from the damage caused by Typhoon Urduja in December 2017.