AboitizPower to help produce geothermal power in Indonesia

Business Mirror
by Lenie Lectura - September 22, 2015

ABOITIZ Power Corp. (AboitizPower) is partnering with an Indonesian geothermal-power producer to undertake a project in Indonesia.

The company told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that its wholly owned Singapore-based subsidiary, AboitizPower International Pte. Ltd., entered into an agreement with PT Medco Power Indonesia to participate in the exploration and development of a potential 2×55 megawatt (MW) greenfield geothermal plant in East Java province.

PT Medco Cahaya Geothermal—the project company, as the subsidiary of PT Medco Power Indonesia—was awarded the concession to develop the project and is currently in the resource validation and exploration stage. AboitizPower CEO Erramon Aboitiz earlier said the power firm is looking at opportunities abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

“We’re willing to look at opportunities abroad. We’re looking at Papua New Guinea and opportunities in Indonesia. We’re still firming this up,” he said earlier.

He said that geothermal power is something that interests the power firm. “We’re looking at geothermal, hydropower and other energy projects. We’re talking to some partners. Our preference is not greenfield projects.”

AboitizPower is also keen on more renewable projects and hopes to add solar energy to its portfolio to supplement its hydroelectric and geothermal projects.

Aboitiz Renewables Inc. (ARI) earlier signed a deal with SunEdison Philippines Helios BV (SunEdison) to formalize their partnership via a joint venture company, Maaraw Holdings, which is 60-percent owned by ARI.

Maaraw Holdings will undertake the acquisition, development and exploration of the 59-MW solar photovoltaic power-generation project in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

In November last year Aboitiz said ARI and SunEdison will develop up to 300 MW of solar energy in the country over the next three years.

AboitzPower targets to put up 2,000 MW of additional power capacity in the next five years. It has programmed P125 billion to achieve this target. source