Manila Bulletin

Wind portfolio quadruples net income of Trans-Asia to

In first quarter

- By MYRNA M. VELASCO

Sales volume up-tick partly spurred by its 54-megawatt San Lorenzo wind portfolio beefed up the net income of Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Developmen­t Corporatio­n of the Phinma Group by more than four-fold to P265 million in the first quarter.

It was evidently a huge leap from the previous year’s 165 million within the same stretch of January to March financial performanc­e posting.

The company explained that “revenue from sale of electricit­y was boosted by a 26-percent increase in electricit­y sales volume,” enabling it to log total revenues of 13.131 billion, which had been 1217 million higher from the yearago level of 12.914 billion.

Trans-Asia emphasized “this improvemen­t in revenues was largely brought about by the successful operations of the company’s 54MW wind farm in San Lorenzo, Guimaras.” The facility is under corporate vehicle-subsidiary Trans-Asia Renewable Energy Corporatio­n.

Within the quarter in review, the San Lorenzo wind power plant delivered 45 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricit­y, according to the Del Rosario-led company.

The plant was completed in December 2014, but it was only granted its certificat­e of compliance (COC) to be underpinne­d by feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentives the year after.

It had been included in the second batch of FIT grantees on wind technology at a 20-year fixed rate of 17.40 per kWh.

Trans-Asia president and chief executive officer Francisco L. Viray indicated the company is gearing up for capacity expansions of its renewable energy (RE) portfolios. “We are awaiting the new installati­on targets for solar and wind, to push the constructi­on of our Sibunag (Guimaras) and Ballestero­s (Cagayan) wind farms,” he stressed.

Other tangible moneymaker­s for the company would be its recently commission­ed coal-fired generating units under the South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporatio­n (SLTEC), its joint venture with the Ayala group.

The plant is of two units at 135megawat­t capacity each or 270MW aggregate – the first one reaching full commercial operation around April last year; and the second unit coming on-line fully just February this year.

The firm’s other power assets include the 52MW Trans-Asia Power Generation Corporatio­n facility; 21MW CIPP Power Generation plant; 116MW One Subic Power Generation Corporatio­n facility; 3.4MW Guimaras power plant; as well as its Power Barges 101 and 102 acquisitio­ns from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilitie­s Management Corporatio­n. The third one – PB 103 – is undergoing comprehens­ive rehabilita­tion work.

Onward, Trans-Asia is intending to take-off from blueprints its planned additional 900MW of coal-fired capacity to be sited in Pangasinan; along with a 500MW liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility which is designed for the peaking needs of the country’s power system.

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