Lopez-led First Gen Corp. is planning a capital expenditure budget of P41.7 billion this year, up from P33.5 billionlast year, as it pursues pumped storage hydro and geother-mal expansion.
First Gen president Francis Giles Puno said the bulk of this year’s spending is for a 2,000-megawatt pumped storage hydro project being jointly developed with Prime In-frastructure Capital Inc. The project is targeted for completion between 2029 and 2030.
“We don’t own 100 percent of that. We own 40 percent of that. So that’s net 800 MW. We also have a separate pump storage that we have 100 MW,” Puno said on the side-lines of Energy Development Corp.’s 50th anniversary celebration. “But I think that, in fact, honestly, I think the 800 MW net and the 2,000 MW gross capacity that’s being de-veloped by Prime, together with ourselves, is a very exciting prospect for hydro in the Philippines.”
Puno said First Gen, through subsidiary EDC, will also continue drilling projects and improve the performance of existing geothermal power plants.
“We’ve had a major drilling program the past few years. Now, what we’re trying to do is to make sure that we get the steam that we targeted to get from there and then be able to drill the wells that will enable us to manage the field properly,” EDC president Je-rome Cainglet said.
Cainglet said geothermal drilling will continue to sustain production levels for its pro-jects. Puno added that the company hopes to start drilling in Indonesia by next year.
PT FirstGen Geothermal Indonesia, an EDC subsidiary, entered an agreement last year to establish a joint venture with PT DSSR Daya Mas Sakti. The partner is a subsid-iary of PT Dian Swastatika Sentosa Tbk, part of the Sinar Mas group, to develop geo-thermal projects in Indonesia.
The joint venture will focus on developing geothermal resources with a combined po-tential of about 440 MW across six strategic fields in West Java, Flores, Jambi, West Sumatra and Central Sulawesi.
“We hope to start at least one drill… the latter part of this year. And then maybe two or three more next year. There are six sites that we’re looking at,” Puno said.
The company is also reviewing its previous target of increasing its portfolio to 13,000 MW by 2030.
“We’re reviewing our plans because at the same time the market has also not grown,” Puno said. “We’re also adjusting based on the market needs. But, certainly, whenever there’s geothermal potential, we want to pursue that.”
He said the company will continue to diversify into other renewable sources, such as solar, with a groundbreaking for a 50-MW solar project scheduled next week.
“It’ll be First Gen’s really first major solar facility in Batangas. So, it really rounds off all of the technologies available for renewable energy,” Puno said.
