Energy Development Corp., the country’s largest renewable energy company, said first-quarter consolidated recurring net income climbed 24 percent to P3.25 billion from P2.63 billion a year ago, on higher output from power plants.
EDC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange consolidated revenues grew 6 percent in the first quarter to P9.61 billion, driven by higher average prices from key geothermal units and the increase in generation volumes of Unified Leyte geothermal plants and Burgos wind farm.
“The results for this quarter show that we are gaining traction on our goal to deliver ‘financial predictability’ to our investors. Our aggressive efforts to address our uncontracted capacity for Bacman and Nasulo last year and our extensive asset rehabilitation program in Leyte and for our other units are starting to pay off,” EDC president and chief operating officer Richard Tantoco said.
Costs of sale of electricity increased 6.7 percent to P3.432 billion in the period ending March 31, 2017.
EDC said to reduce the unplanned outage factors of older geothermal units, it embarked on a multi-billion rehabilitation project of its 112.5-megawatt Tongonan geothermal power plant in Leyte.
“The retrofit of Tongonan’s two other units are on track to be completed by the third quarter. After the retrofit, it will be as good as new and we expect an increase of up to 10 percent in its total capacity,” Tantoco said.
EDC’s 150-MW Burgos wind farm, the largest in the country, also benefited from strong wind factors in the first quarter of 2017. Total sales volume increased from 103 gigawatt-hours to 144 gWh in the period, helping off-set the reduced sales volume from its hydro unit from 256 gWh to 219 gWh.