First Gen to build more hydro power projects

Lopez-owned First Gen Corp. is going full blast in boosting hydropower portfolio starting 2017 as it focuses on completing its two gasfired plants in Batangas this year.

First Gen president and COO Francis Giles Puno said the company remains bullish in developing hydrpowower projects in Mindanao.

“Our hydro business development team is scaling its expertise in hydroelectric power plant construction and development so that we can start construction of at least one of the 32-megawatt (MW) Bubunawan, the 30-MW Puyo and the 4-.5-MW Tagoloan run-of-river hydroelectric power projects,” Puno said.

The company has started rehabilitating the access road in Bubunawan, which is expected to be completed within the year, Puno said.

But for this year, the company would focus on finishing the 97MW Avion and the 414-MW San Gabriel gas-fired power plants, CFO Emmanuel Singson said.

Singson said the company has earmarked $200 million for both Avion and San Gabriel, which would achieve commercial operations in the first half and second half, respectively.

Puno said both plants are currently undergoing commissioning. The Avion plant was supposed to deliver power during the summer months of 2015 but faced delays as its turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction contractors, with Istroenergo-Group (IEG) and its Philippine branch company Energy Project Completion Ltd. (EPC), failed to comply with their obligations.

The San Gabriel plant, on the other hand, was supposed to run before the summer months of 2016.

For the hydropower plants, the “big capex” will start in 2017 until 2019, Singson said.