AC Energy sees consistent earnings growth from wind, geothermal fields

MANILA, Philippines - AC Energy, the power unit of Ayala Corp., expects consistent earnings growth in the medium term with higher contributions from wind farms, geothermal and new power projects, its top official said.

The group started seeing improvements in its 2017 financial results after wind projects improved its performance and new contributions from the purchase of Chevron assets, AC Energy CEO John Eric Francia said.

“Last year, we’ve had a good wind regime. Plus, geothermal investments are accretive starting April, so that added to our equity earnings. Those were the two significant contributors,” he said.

In early 2017, AC Energy and its partners have sealed the purchase and acquisition of Chevron’s geothermal assets and operations in Indonesia.

The Indonesian assets and operations include the Darajat and Salak geothermal fields in West Java, with a combined capacity of 637 megawatts (MW) of steam and power.

They were acquired through Star Energy Geothermal (Salak-Darajat) B.V., the joint venture firm of AC Energy (with 19.8 percent economic stake), Star Energy Group Holdings Pte. Ltd., Star Energy Geothermal Pte. Ltd. and Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd.

Meanwhile, it has two wind projects, namely the 52-MW Northwind Power Development Corp. in Bangui, Ilocos Norte and the 81-MW wind farm in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte through its affiliate North Luzon Renewables Energy Corp. (NLREC).

For this year and in the next two to three years, AC Energy sees bottom line to trend higher with the full-year contribution of the geothermal investments and new power projects set to start operations.

“We’ll see consistent growth in three to four years. The momentum is pretty good,” Francia said.

In particular, AC Energy will see significant improvement in earnings with the full year impact of geothermal investments.

The company official also said the Sidrap wind farm, its first wind project in Sulawesi, Indonesia, would have earnings contributions this year as it starts commercial operations within the first quarter.

The wind farm is being done with partner UPC Renewables Indonesia Ltd. under project company PT UPC Sidrap Bayu Energi.

AC Energy also targets to start operating the first unit of its 4x135- MW coal-fired power plant in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte in Mindanao through GN Power Kauswagan Ltd. Co. in the second half of 2018.

In 2019, the first unit of the 2x668-MW GN Power Dinginin Ltd. Co. coal plant in Bataan is targeted for commercial operations.