Lopez-owned power firm First Gen Corporation at its recent annual shareholders’ meeting bared the near completion of the 28.9 megawatt (MW) Palayan binary project in Bicol which is targeted for commercial operation this coming September.
The enterprise also announced starting the construction of the 100 MW Aya pumped-storage hydro power project in Nueva Ecija around the third quarter this year.
Earlier, First Gen bared plans to spend as much as $20 billion to generate additional capacity of up to 9,640 MW and achieve a total portfolio of around 13,000 MW by 2030.
This means 2,000 come MW from natural gas-fired power plants, 1,500 MW from solar, 5,100 MW from wind, 700 MW from geothermal, 300 MW from hydro, and 40 MW from battery its energy storage systems (BESS).
First Gen Corporation as a group has a combined capacity of 3,500 MW at present.
First Gen is spending $1.1 billion this year, of which $526 million will be used for the acquisition of the 165 MW Casecnan hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Ecija from the government;.
Subsidiary Energy Development Corp. has allocated $403 million to pursue geothermal and BESS projects.
Some $90 million had been budgeted for the operations of its liquefied natural gas import terminal in Batangas and $50 million for the Aya hydro project. The rest are for the financing needs of its natural gas-fired power plants.
Emmanuel Singson, First Gen chief finance officer, said this year’s capex will be funded by a combination of internally generated funds and debt.
