Vivant Energy to hike capacity to 1,000 MW

By Lenie Lectura - February 3, 2020

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/02/03/vivant-energy-to-hike-capacity-to-1000-mw/

VIVANT Energy Corp. intends to ramp up its capacity to 1,000 megawatts by 2030, half of which could be achieved by 2023.

From the current 282 MW, the mandate of the board of Vivant Energy is to scale this up to 500 MW by 2023.

“The fact that they said 500 MW, it means they’re willing to support the investment of at least that amount. The other target we’re looking at is 1,000 MW by 2030. We revisit these targets every couple of years,” said  Vivant Energy Chief Operating Officer Emil Andre Garcia.

He said 20 percent of the planned 500 MW would be sourced from renewable energy. At 1,000 MW, Vivant’s RE portfolio is targeted to reach 30 percent.

“In our planning session, we would like to have at least an additional, hit 500 MW by 2023…. We’re quite heavy on coal, bunker. So, we want to make that conscious shift to RE-centric projects.  We know there’s still a place for conventional [sources] but we want to have the proper mix.

We’re looking at several RE projects right now. We want to focus on solar and wind. We have some hydro being developed in our portfolio, but we want to focus on solar and wind. We’re looking at areas for solar—areas where we can get competitive rates. We’ll try to work with cooperatives, utilities, even contestable,” said Garcia.

The company will develop a 670-MW coal plant in La Union in partnership with Global Business Power Corp. and a wind project with potential partners in Eastern.

“We hope to break ground on this wind project by first half of next year. We’re doing the proper sizing right now, so it’s around 80 MW to 100 MW, but it looks like it’s close to 80 MW to 85 MW,” added Garcia.