Energy Development Corp. said Tuesday it posted a net income of P2.63 billion in the first quarter, down 19.2 percent from P3.261 billion in the same period in 2021.
EDC in a disclosure to the stock exchange attributed the decrease to higher costs of sale and higher net provision for income tax partly offset by higher revenue.
“I think predominantly, Typhoon Odette which curtailed our output until mid-January. Our plants are operating, but the transmission lines of NGCP were down [and] lower wind this first quarter compared to the same period last year,” said EDC senior vice president and chief financial officer Erwin Avante.
The company’s energy sales volume decreased by 7.5 percent or 175.8 gigawatt-hours to 2,174.4 GWh from 2,350.2 GWh in 2021 on lower generation.
Revenue increased by 4.8 percent or P497.8 million to P10.89 billion in period ended March 31 from P10.388 billion a year earlier, on higher prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
Costs of sale of electricity went up by 21.8 percent or P1.050 billion to P5.86 billion from P4.81 billion due to increases in purchased services and utilities and repairs and maintenance.
Meanwhile, the company is allocating P17 billion for 2022 capital expenditures to pursue its expansion program, Avante said.
“About P7 billion of this pertain to drillings and other capex for existing operations. The P10 billion is for the growth projects that we have, including the Mindanao 3 project which we completed last March, the Palayan Bayan project which we expect to complete in the third quarter of 2023 and several other projects which we expect to issue notice to proceed this year,” Avante said.
EDC recently inaugurated the 3.6-megawatt Mindanao 3 Binary Geothermal Power Plant, an expansion of the Mount Apo geothermal facility in Mindanao.
The P1.9-billion binary power plant started construction amid the pandemic and will make use of existing brine from EDC’s 103-MW Mindanao 1 and 2 geothermal power facilities to generate additional energy without the need for additional drilling.
The plant was synchronized to the Mindanao Grid on March 12 and passed the grid compliance testing by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on March 25.
The project will not only contribute reliable power to the Mindanao region, but will also avoid around 25,000 tons of equivalent carbon dioxide each year through the use of clean geothermal energy instead of coal.
EDC has over 1,480 MW of total installed capacity, which accounts for 20 percent of the total installed RE capacity, while its 1,181-MW geothermal portfolio accounts for 62 percent of the total installed geothermal capacity.
Its geothermal capacity put the Philippines on the map as the third largest geothermal producer in the world.