Energy Development Corp. said Monday it will continue to develop geothermal projects in Indonesia, Peru, Taiwan, and Chile as part of its expansion.
“Although the COVID situation and the accompanying travel restrictions have caused some delays in EDC’s activities in Indonesia and Taiwan, the company continues to be keen on those markets,” EDC said.
EDC said it would continue pre-development activities in its geothermal concessions in Indonesia, Chile, and Peru. The company intends to develop the Graho Nyabu project in Indonesia.
EDC said Peru and Chile could be key markets for the expansion program as their governments started to see the value of true base-load renewable energy such as geothermal.
The company said it was also looking at Taiwan for potential expansion because of favorable feed-in tariff for geothermal energy.
EDC plans to allocate $280 million in capital expenditures this year for drilling and investments as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the postponement of key activities last year.
The capex would cover the development of binary growth projects—specifically the 3.6-megawatt Mindanao 3 and the 29-MW Palayan Bayan projects.
The company operates in the four geothermal service contract areas where it is principally involved in the generation and sale of electricity through company-owned geothermal power plants to National Power Corp., electric cooperatives, privately-owned distribution utilities, large industrial clients and the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, pursuant to power purchase agreements, Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, ancillary services procurement agreements and feed-in-tariff.
EDC posted a net income of P3.26 billion in the first quarter, up 2 percent from P3.194 billion it earned in the same period in 2020.
The increase was due to higher revenue (P532 million), lower interest expense (net P92.6 million), and provision for income tax (P120 million) partly offset by higher costs of sale and general and expenses (P643.3 million) and other charges (net P34.6 million).