First Gen expects boost from geothermal assets

LOPEZ-LED First Gen Corp. expects its investments in geothermal assets to enhance its generation portfolio and potentially boost its earnings next year, its president said.

Francis Giles B. Puno, president and chief operating officer of First Gen, said that the company is still “in the green,” but is monitoring the impact of the decline in geothermal prices.

“For geothermal, in particular, the prices are generally lower, and our production is lower simply because our steam… we’re still doing the drilling today. So, the costs are being borne today,” he told reporters on Aug. 14.

“So, it’s a combination of lower price, lower volume, and higher OPEX (operating expenses),” he added.

During the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting, Mr. Puno said that First Gen’s subsidiary, Energy Development Corp. (EDC), is investing about P30 billion “to build 83 megawatts (MW) of new geothermal power plants and four megawatt-hours of battery energy storage system to be commissioned this year.”

In July, EDC officially introduced its 28.9-MW Palayan Binary Geothermal Power Plant in Albay, as part of the expansion of its existing 140-MW Bacon-Manito facility.

For the second half of the year, the company’s attributable net income fell by 7.4% to $154.08 million from $166.44 million in the same period last year.

Gross revenues slightly declined by 0.8% to $1.28 billion due to lower volumes of electricity sold during the first half of the year across all platforms except for the hydro platform. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera