AboitizPower plans to expand capacity

MANILA, Philippines — The power unit of the Aboitiz Group  plans to expand its energy capacity next year with the continued development of its projects and its possible entry into the gas sector.

In a virtual briefing, AboitizPower president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Rubio said while the company cannot regain lost demand in the previous quarters due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it looks forward to additional energy capacities next year.

The company has already surpassed its target of 4,000 megawatts (MW) of attributable capacity this year with the addition of GNPower Dinginin.

Rubio said the company is also looking at participating in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)’s competitive selection process (CSP) for 1,800 MW of green baseload capacity.

The company official said SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP) has also received approval to proceed with its energy storage investments, while Therma Marine Inc.’s barge in Maco, Compostela Valley has also received approval to provide ancillary services.

In terms of renewable energy (RE), AboitizPower has set its eyes on aggressively expanding its ‘Cleanergy’ portfolio in the next 10 years, with the goal of shifting its overall energy mix into almost 50:50 Thermal and Cleanergy capacities by 2030.

Rubio said the pandemic has lowered the demand for RE and has delayed the need for physical capacity for RE.

“And we expect that the demand for renewable energy, the physical demand will come in 2025 instead of 2023 because of the pandemic,” Rubio said.

He said the company is looking at growing its RE portfolio from the current 940 MW to close to 1,800 MW.

Rubio said the firm has organized a team to look into gas as a serious option for its baseload strategy, as it noticed a trend in terms of the forward curves for cost of gas getting to be more and more competitive.

“And this is something we are considering for the next 10 years, given that the Philippines will require baseload capacities anywhere from 680 to 750 MW year-on-year,” Rubio said.