EDC to expand geothermal assets

By Lenie Lectura – May 13, 2019
from Business Mirror

LOPEZ-led Energy Development Corp. (EDC) said last week it would carry out “a small expansion” of its geothermal assets.

“We have a few plants lined up for EDC. They are small, less than 30 megawatts [MW],” said EDC President Richard Tantoco when asked what renewable-energy (RE) projects are in store for EDC this year.

Tantoco said these small expansion projects involve EDC’s geothermal plants at Leyte, Bacon-Manito (BacMan) and Mount Apo.

“Just a couple in the pipeline and we are likely to issue notice to proceed on one of them within the next six months—geothermal, brownfield and within the existing assets for expansions,” he added.

EDC’s geothermal-plant portfolio is composed of the following: 140-megawatt Bac-Man, 588.4-MW Unified Leyte, 123-MW Tongonan, 172.5-MW Palinpinon, 49.4-MW Nasulo and 106-MW Mindanao plant.

This year, the company expects normal geothermal plant operations after the full restoration of the Leyte plants. It has also invested in various resiliency programs to better mitigate the company’s vulnerability to natural calamities and quickly recover from their effects.

EDC’s Leyte plants were hit by two calamities in 2017—a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in July and Typhoon Urduja in December.

EDC is a subsidiary of the First Gen Corp., the country’s largest clean-energy company, with a portfolio that includes natural gas, geothermal, solar, wind and hydro.

The company also continues to explore and assess growth opportunities in Indonesia, Chile, Peru and other countries in the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions.  It owns a number of geothermal concessions in these areas, and various predevelopment works are ongoing.