Published May 18, 2017, 10:00 PM By Myrna M. Velasco
On combined impact of its plant
shutdown and hike in interest charges, the net earnings of PHINMA Energy
Corporation dipped to P82 million in the first quarter from a rosier income of
P119 million in the same period last year.
Overall though, the company’s level
of revenues have gone up by 16 percent within the first three months to P3.6
billion – generally due to higher energy sales.
The South Luzon Thermal Energy
Corporation (SLTEC) plant of Phinma Energy in Batangas had its scheduled
shutdown during the quarter, hence, it affected the company’s cash stream on
that period.
Additionally, PHINMA Energy reported
that “interest and financial charges for the period increased to P158 million
from P117 million the previous year.”
In spite of the shrink on its bottom
line figure, however, PHINMA Energy still looks forward to an overall favorable
financial performance for the year – which may be driven by its growing
portfolio in the power retail market.
The company noted that it already
successfully switched customers for an aggregate capacity of 100 megawatts – in
peak load demand.
Its market share in the industry’s
competitive retail regime is now at 12 percent and touted to be the biggest in
that business segment of the restructured electricity sector.
Beyond retail competition, PHINMA
Energy is also inclined to pursue its other blueprinted projects – including
its wind farm expansion in Guimaras and the 12MW geothermal joint venture in
Batangas.
For its retail electricity supplier
(RES) arm, PHINMA Energy assistant vice president and head of Marketing
Danielle del Rosario previously noted that majority of the company’s power
retail customers are in the Luzon grid while growth is also looming for
targeted end-users in Visayas.
Their RES-captured industries and
commercial end-users are generally malls, office buildings and business process
outsourcing (BPO) establishments and those in the manufacturing sector.
These customers are in the
consumption thresholds of 1.0MW and up, since the lower consumption level had
not been allowed to switch yet with the temporary restraining order (TRO)
issued by the Supreme Court against the Retail Competition and Open Access
(RCOA) policy.
Del Rosario explained that the main
incentive for these contestable customers to switch sourcing to RES would be
cost-savings – a tangible outcome that they can really account in operating
expenses and ultimately in their bottom line.
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