EDC sees better results in H2 after 21% income decline in H1

By Lenie Lectura - October 1, 2018

https://businessmirror.com.ph/edc-sees-better-results-in-h2-after-21-income-decline-in-h1/

LOPEZ-LED Energy Development Corp. (EDC) is expected to perform better in the second half of 2018 after posting a 21-percent decline in net income during the first six months of the year.

“We’re expecting a recovery in the second half. Our return-to-service activities in Leyte have panned out better than our plans. So there’s been a significant acceleration on the return-to-service, and we are optimistic the company will recover both cash flow and profit this second half,” EDC President Richard Tantoco said.

The country’s largest geothermal and wind-energy company posted P4.1 billion in net income from January to June this year, down from the P5.2 billion it reported in the same period a year ago. Revenues also declined to P17.1 billion, down by 3 percent from P17.7 billion in the same period last year.

EDC’s lower-half performance was mainly affected by the damage brought about by Typhoon Urduja last December. The company’s geothermal power-generation volume in Leyte was down by 18.5 percent for the first six months.

“If you look at capacity factors, they are quite low because of natural disasters,” Tantoco said.

EDC operates the Unified Leyte geothermal power facility in the same province. It consists of the 125-megawatt Upper Mahiao plant, the 232.5-MW Matlibog plant, the 180-MW Mahanagdong plant and the 51-MW Leyte optimization plants. It also operates the 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal facility.

Tantoco said “the capacity for most plants will increase a little bit,” noting that one unit of the Tongonan plant went online last May, three months ahead of schedule.

“We’re spending a lot on resiliency, so the plants will be available,” he said.

The company allocated P7 billion in capital expenditure this year mainly to improve reliability of its steam plants.

The EDC currently delivers 1,472 MW of renewable energy to the country in the form of hydro, solar and wind power apart from geothermal. EDC’s 150-MW Burgos Wind Farm is also the biggest in the country, while its almost 1,200-MW geothermal installed capacity accounts for 61 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity.

Tantoco said the company is looking at geothermal expansion projects that are being seriously considered to be included in the Department of Energy’s  list of energy projects of national significance (EPNS).

“We’d like to apply for EPNS because they’re important,” he said, adding the EDC would formally file its application “when we have a higher degree of certainty and confidence on the resource and the fact that the resource is not problematic.”

This includes an expansion of an existing geothermal project on Mount Apo in Mindanao, and an expansion of its Bacon-Manito (BacMan) project.

The Mindanao geothermal expansion could reach a capacity of 20 MW to 60 MW, while BacMan could have about 40 MW to 60 MW, Tantoco said.

The EDC also said it has effectively attained the sustainability goal of a carbon neutral status.

A report said the company’s operations in the past year resulted in a carbon footprint of just over 790,000 CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent)—amounting to only 22 percent of the carbon absorption of all the forests it has nurtured and managed in its geothermal reservations since EDC started operations four decades ago, and as part of the Binhi forest-restoration program the company began implementing in 2008.

Such an achievement even makes EDC a carbon-negative enterprise, as industry experts would call it. Also known as being “climate positive,” it means the company has not only achieved climate neutrality or net-zero carbon emissions but has also contributed to removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.