ACR sets P9 B for 2018 expenditures

Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR), the listed holding firm of the Alcantara family, is pouring in P9 billion in capital spending this year mostly for its power business.

ACR CFO Robert Yenko said the company has allocated P9 billion for the whole group.

Of the amount, P7 billion will be for the completion of the second section of its 210-MW Sarangani Energy Corp. (SEC) baseload plant in Maasim, Sarangani.

“This year, we’re completing the bulk of SEC 2. This year alone, that should be P7 billion,” he said.

The second 105-MW phase of SEC 2 is targeted to start commercial operations by January 15, 2019.

It is fully contracted to Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company Inc., Cotabato Electric Cooperative Inc., Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc., Iligan Light and Power Inc., South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative Inc., and to the Zamboanga del Sur I Electric Cooperative Inc.

The company has also resolved its transmission issues with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), ACR chairman and president Tomas Alcantara said.

“They committed that they will do the last mile. The issue was who will construct the last mile from their fence to substation,” he said.

ACR earlier sought the help of the Department of Energy (DOE) for urgent intervention to install necessary assets for the connection of its power project to the grid to meet its target completion and commercial operations.

Meanwhile, ACR is also preparing around P1 billion for its 15-megawatt (MW) Siguil run-of-river power plant also in Maasim, Sarangani, which should complete the technical, marketing and financial aspects of the project by the third quarter.

“For Siguil, we don’t have any capex at this point, but once we sign the EPC (engineering procurement and construction) contract by the third quarter, then we will have to put out a billion pesos,” Yenko said.