Ayala Corp. expects to see stable earnings from its power business through wholly-owned subsidiary AC Energy Holdings Inc., an executive said over the weekend.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time. Around two-thirds of our portfolio, our assets just started operations. It takes a couple of years before your assets stabilize,” AC Energy president John Eric Francia told reporters.
Francia, however, said he expected the power business to start contributing to the Ayala Group’s revenues and net income this year.
“I can’t give you an indication [whether double-digit]. But given that a lot of our assets are already operational, obviously that helps,” he said.
“It takes time to get at a steady state. For this set of assets, GN Mindanao will be the last one in this 700-megawatt attributable equity. That’s the only one under construction, and the solar by next year it will be operational,” Francia said.
He said the second 135-MW unit of South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp.’s 270-MW coal plant, AC Energy’s joint venture with Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., was set to be commissioned soon. The first 135-MW unit started operations in June.
AC Energy is also putting up a 540-MW coal-fired power plant in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte in Mindanao.
The Mindanao power plant is developed by GN Power Kauswagan Ltd. Co., a limited partnership among AC Energy, the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure fund and Power Partners Ltd. Co.
“Once GN Mindanao stabilizes, call it 2018 to 2019, hopefully sooner, given that we hope to start in 2017, then you’ll be able to see stable earnings by 2019,” Francia said.
He said the power business was currently contributing around 10 percent to the Ayala Group’s bottom-line.
AC Energy earlier announced it teamed up with Bronzeoak Philippines Inc. for the development, construction and operation of a solar power farm in Bais City, Negros Oriental.
The solar project will be owned and operated by Monte Solar Energy Inc., a special purpose vehicle company, and shall be undertaken in two phases.
The first phase is for an 18-MW solar power plant with a total project cost of P1.3 billion and is targeted for completion by March 2016. The second phase is for the expansion of the initial 18-MW solar power plant up to 40 MW.
AC Energy also owns a 36-percent stake in North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp., which owns and operates the 81-MW wind farm in Barangay Caparispisan, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
AC Energy has a stake in the 52-MW wind project of Northwind Power Development Corp. in Bangui, Ilocos Norte.
The company is also involved in the development of a 1,200-MW power plant in Bataan beside the existing GN Power Mariveles plant.
AC Energy expects to have 1,000 MW of attributable capacity