Alsons: Bulk of 2018 capex for power projects

ALSONS Consolidated Resources, Inc. ( ACR) is earmarking about P9 billion in capital expenditures ( capex) for 2018, with the bulk of this amount to be spent on power projects, a top company official said.

“Bulk is for power,” Alsons Chief Financial Officer Robert Yenko told reporters.

Yenko said Alsons is completing this year the second 105- megawatt ( MW) unit of Sarangani Energy Corp.’s ( SEC) 210- MW coal- fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani which uses a circulating fluidized bed boiler. “That should be around P7 billion,” Yenko said.

Meanwhile, Alsons Chairman Tomas Alcantara said the interconnection dispute with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines ( NGCP) has been resolved.

“They have agreed that they will do it,” Alcantara explained. “They committed that they will do the last mile because the issue was who will construct the last mile from their fence to the substation within their compound.”

Their current focus is to make sure the commissioning of the Sarangani facility goes ahead “as scheduled within the first quarter of next year,” he added.

Meanwhile, the P3.7- billion, 15- MW Siguil run- of- river hydro power plant in the same municipality has no indicated spending budget yet at this point, Alcantara said.

“But once they do sign the EPC [ engineering, procurement, and construction] contract by the third quarter, then we will have a billion pesos” allocated for the project, Alcantara said.

The Siguil hydro power plant, the listed firm’s first foray into renewable energy, is on course to commence commercial operations by 2020.

Alcantara noted that the 105MW baseload coal- fired power plant of San Ramon Power, Inc. in Zamboanga City is not seen as a major expenditure item this year.

“We’re also programming to start [ it towards latter part of the year but that’s a very small portion of the capex,” he added.

The San Ramon baseload plant, set to begin operating in 2021, and the second phase of the SEC plant have more than 80 percent of their capacity already contracted, Alsons said.

Alsons, the first independent power producer in Mindanao, is a publicly listed company of the Alcantara Group with subsidiaries engaged in power generation, property development, industrial estate management, and other investments.

Shares of Alsons closed flat at P1.25 apiece on Friday.