Aboitiz Power to spend P52-B to surpass 2,000 MW generating capacity in five years

MANILA – Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC), through its mother company Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), will spend Php 52 billion to hike its power generating capacity to more than 2,000 megawatt (MWs) in the next five years.

”AboitizPower, is allotting P 52 billion in capex (capital expenditures) for the year and remains committed, along with its partners, to increase total capacity by over 2,000 MW in the next five years,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Aboitiz said the allocated amount would go to projects that included the 420 MW Pagbilao Coal Fired Power Plant in Quezon, which began construction during the fourth quarter of 2014, with a total project cost of USD 1 billion — along with the 340 MW Therma Visayas Coal Fired Power Plant in Cebu that would have its groundbreaking this year.

”Another 300 MW will come from Therma South, which will start operations in the first half of 2015, to provide much needed power to the Mindanao grid,” it said.

The firm said that construction of Therma South 3rd unit with 170 MW capacity would start this year.

Meanwhile, Aboitiz said construction of the 68-MW Manolo Fortich hydropower plant in Bukidnon would start also this year.

But legal constraints had delayed the construction of the 600-MW Subic Coal Fired Power Plant.

With the projects, the company reiterated its focus on expanding its renewable energy portfolio, venturing into solar and geothermal projects.

Aboitiz Power cited its recently signed partnership with American company SunEdison to build solar power plants in the country with a target of 300 MW.

Earlier, Aboitiz Power said its partnership for the solar projects was set from 2015 until 2018.

For its other hydropower projects, it has identified 200-MW run of the river power potential, scattered across the country.

The Php 52 billion capital expenditures is part of AEV’s full Php 60-billion expansion costs for 2015.

Aboitiz Power Corp. operates 21 power plants in the country, mainly in Luzon and Mindanao.