A UNIT of Energy Development Corp.’s (EDC) 112.5-megawatt (MW) Tongonan geothermal power plant in Leyte went on emergency shutdown due to issues related to the age of the facility, but officials assured its impact will be minimal.
May 072015
Aug 302013
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Energy (DOE) has thumbed down the proposed farm-in agreement for Service Contract 6 in Northwest Palawan primarily due to its proponents failure to meet the required financial capability, Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) yesterday. The farm-in agreement proposes to transfer the 70 percent interest and right to operate SC 6 to three companies, namely Peak Oil and Gas Ltd., Blade Petroleum and VenturOil Philippines Inc. Trans-Asia Petroleum, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., has a 14.063 percent participating interest in SC 6 Block B. Other consortium members are Philodrill, Nido Petroleum Ltd., Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp., Forum Energy Philippines Corp. and Alcorn Petroleum & Minerals Corp. In December 2011, Philodrill executed a deed of assignment, transferring the 70 percent participating interest in SC 6B – located northwest of Palawan – to the three companies. However, the energy department said that after a thorough review of the documents, the documents were deemed not enough to completely evaluate the application. “Further, Philodrill failed to comply and submit additional updated documents as requested in our letter… Since then and up to now, all the farminees have been unable to comply with the DOE’s directive to submit additional documents which are supposed to aid the DOE in properly determining whether the farminees and applicant for operatorship are qualified to perform the work obligations in SC 6B,” the energy department said in an earlier letter to Read More …
Aug 122013
MANILA, Philippines – First Gen Corp. posted a net income of $77.7 million in the first half of 2013, down 17.4 percent from $94 million in the same period last year. First Gen president Francis Giles Puno attributed the drop in earnings to the lower income booked by subsidiary First Gen Hydro Power Corp. (FG Hydro) owing to reduced sales from ancillary services. However, Puno said they had anticipated the decline in earnings for the period. “The dip in earnings was expected given the reduced revenues from ancillary services and further delays in the rehabilitation of BacMan,” the First Gen executive said. “The incident at San Lorenzo’s Unit 60 was unfortunate, but we have already ordered a new transformer to get the unit back in operation as soon as possible,” he added. “While EDC actually generated higher revenues and achieved savings in its operating expenses, the foreign exchange losses could not be avoided with the depreciation of the peso,” he noted. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “The company is extremely busy in executing its growth projects, including the 87-megawatt wind farm in Burgos, the 40-MW Negros transfer project, and the 500-MW San Gabriel natural gas projects,” he added. Puno said the 1,500-MW First Gas plants also incurred higher interest expenses and provision for deferred income tax due to the depreciation of the peso, though partially offset by the contribution of the purchase of the BG Group’s 40 percent stake in the plants in May 2012. Its Read More …
Jul 232013
MANILA, Philippines – AboitizPower, the holding company for the Aboitiz Group’s power generation, distribution and retail businesses, is eyeing to embark on wind projects, saying the sector could be an attractive venture. “We’re looking at some wind projects but it’s a bit difficult to sell,” said AboitizPower senior vice president Luis Miguel Aboitiz. He noted that wind energy is more expensive than coal and should be sold in a different way. At the same time, Aboitiz said the incentives from the government for renewable energy projects such as the feed-in-tariff (FIT) would help investors. The FIT regime is a form of incentives for renewable energy players. The FIT rate approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the power regulator, are as follows: P9.68 per kilowatt-hour for solar; P8.53 per kwh for wind, P6.63 per kwh for biomass and P5.90 per kwh for hydropower projects. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 AboitizPower is one of the biggest power companies in the Philippines, with plans to invest P125 billion in the power sector over the next five years to double its capacity to 3,500 megawatts (MW). The Department of Energy, for its part, has been enticing investors to the wind power sector. It expects 300 MW of power capacity by 2016 from a total of five wind power projects. This is on top of the approved three wind farm projects that will generate 208 MW, enough to supply power to at least 40,000 middle-class homes. The three projects are Read More …
Jun 222013
MANILA, Philippines – The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) said the island’s main source of energy would come from coal by 2018 as it stressed that diversifying sources would help address the power crunch in the island. In a recent presentation at the Department of Energy, MinDa director for investment promotions and public affairs Romeo Montegro said next to coal, renewable energy and oil would also become major sources of power in the island. This is necessary to meet the growing demand for power and attract existing and new players, he said. “Ensuring sufficient and reliable power supply for Mindanao is particularly crucial to attract more investments to achieve broad-based growth and long-term sustainable development,” Montero said. Data from MinDA showed that by 2018, coal will account for 56 percent of the energy mix in the region, while renewable energy and oil will account for 30 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Committed projects in Mindanao include the 15-megawatt (mw) bunker-fired peaking plant of EEI Power Corp. in Davao del Norte, the 300-MW coal plant of Therma South Energy Inc. and Energy Development Corp.’s 50-MW Mindanao 3 geothermal plant. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Indicative power projects, on the other hand, include the 100-MW San Ramon coal plant in Zamboanga City, 20-MW biomass plant of FDC Utilities Inc. in Davao del Norte and 1,200-MW coal plant of San Miguel Corp. Montenegro said that while coal will be the major source of power in the region, renewable energy, particularly Read More …