EDC to expand in Indonesia

The country’s top geothermal power firm Energy Development Corp. (EDC) will expand its operations to Indonesia, a ranking executive of the Lopez Group said.

EDC, formerly the government-controlled Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp., (PNOC-EDC), was acquired last year by the Lopez-owned First Gen Corp.

First Gen. Corp. president Federico R. Lopez said that they will first concentrate on “revving up EDC after being under government guidance for so many years.”

In a press briefing, Lopez said they unearthed so much “inefficiencies” in the organization which require a lot of fixing. Nonetheless, he cited that even then, PNOC-EDC was able to register a recurring a net income of P6.5 billion.

“When we have put everything in place, we will be looking for a partner to expand to Indonesia,” he said. Indonesia has a reported potential of 20,000 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power.

Lopez said the country’s geothermal energy sources have a huge potential domestically, and in the region. With the passage of the Renewable Energy bill, the potentials of geothermal as a domestic power source and as a potential investment area for foreign business are intensified.

“For me, Indonesia’s geothermal potential is much greater than the Philippines, and they have only tapped so little and we intend to partner up there and basically help them develop their geothermal industry,” the First Gen executive said.

EDC is seeking partners to pursue the expansion of three geothermal plants in South Sumatra, North Sulawesi and Lampung in Indonesia.

First Gen is the largest vertically-integrated power generation company in the Philippines, with an installed capacity of 2,582 MW, or 17 percent of total installed capacity in the country today.

Its assets comprise the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired power plants, the 225-MW Bauang medium-speed bunker-fired diesel power plant, the Pantabangan/Masiway hydroelectric complex and the 1.6-MW Agusan mini-hydropower plant.

EDC is the country’s largest producer of geothermal power and the global leader in wet streamfield technology. The Philippines, meanwhile, is the world’s second major developer and user of geothermal power after the United States.