By Myrna M. Velasco – June 21, 2021, 3:40 PM
from Manila Bulletin
Despite a Covid-limped year, Garcia-led Vivant Energy Corporation is well on its way to doubling the growth of its capacity in the retail electricity market – with it aiming for 25 megawatts by yearend from a current portfolio of more than 13MW.
“Right now, we are at 13.4MW, and based on what we have under negotiations, we would be ending the year with 25MW capacity of contracted capacity for retail supply,” Vivant Energy Executive Vice President and COO Emil Andre M. Garcia said.
He expounded that the firm’s targeted clients are those in the 1.0-megawatt and higher base of electricity usage – and fundamentally, these are industries and big-ticket commercial establishments.
“A lot of them are in the 1.0MW range, that’s our niche market – lots of them are in the industrial space. And as far as the location, most of them are mainly in Visayas and Luzon,” Garcia specified.
The Vivant executive qualified that the customers they are catering to in the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) frame are strategically spread in the country’s two main power grids, hence, that is giving the company “right customer diversity’ in the power retailing sphere.
Garcia further explained “one of the reasons why there was a sudden growth in RES, because of Covid, a lot of things had slowdown. But now that a lot of things are opening up, a lot of the negotiations have continued, that’s why we’ve been able to grow that by yearend.”
Via its licensed retail electricity supplier (RES) subsidiary Corenergy Inc., Vivant Energy has introduced to targeted contestable customers “all-inclusive services” and tailor-fitted solutions to meet their energy needs.
As prescribed under the RCOA policy, contestable customers are those end-users that can already exercise ‘power of choice’ and directly contract their electricity requirements from preferred suppliers.
The suite of solutions that will be offered to targeted clients, according to Vivant, will include satisfying their energy needs, option for solar rooftop solution as well as engineering solutions or energy business solutions that stretches beyond the meter.
Solar rooftop solution is one investment domain that the company has been widening its business grips on – and it is also part of the package that they will be offering to clients in the electricity retail market space.
The RES unit of the company was registered with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in October 2012. Vivant Energy stepped up on its RES business last year.
The company indicated it is procuring supply “from a diverse mix of sources,” as it primarily takes into consideration the reliability of service as well as the cost impact on a particular customer.