Filinvest gears up to triple power business

MANILA, Philippines — Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp. is charting a course to grow its power business in the long term, with renewables at the forefront of the expansion.

FDC Utilities Inc. (FDCUI), the power arm of the Filinvest Group, wants to achieve a generating capacity of 1,350 megawatts by 2033, more than triple the current capacity of 411 MW.

Filinvest said about 71 percent of the additional capacity would come from renewable energy (RE).

“This will support the country’s economic development and build its resiliency against unexpected adverse changes in the supply of energy,” FDCUI president and CEO Juan Eugenio Roxas said.

The company’s expansion fits well with the government’s target of increasing RE share in the power generation mix to 35 percent by 2030, 50 percent by 2040 and over 50 percent by 2050.

This also supports the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts to ensure energy security, reliability and sustainability, as peak demand is seen growing by 5.5 percent per year until 2030.

“While thermal power remains a large and vital component of our country’s energy mix for the medium term, we also support that (RE) is the way forward, and we are aligning with the DOE’s plan to build more (RE) projects,” Roxas added.

FDCUI has invested over P500 million to develop its first large-scale solar power project in Misamis Oriental.

The 20-MW Misamis solar development is expected to contribute 30,450 MW hours of clean energy annually to the grid.

The company is also pursuing a 135-MW baseload capacity expansion project in the province, approved by the DOE in 2019.

FDCUI recently formalized an agreement with the Northeast Electric Power Engineering Corp. to construct the additional capacities from both renewable and baseload projects.

Currently, FDCUI’s existing facilities utilize the circulating fluidized bed boiler technology to ensure higher plant reliability and steam generator efficiency.

The technology is said to be more costly to build and operate, but it can significantly lower carbon emission intensities.

Another Filinvest unit, Cotabato Sugar Central Co. Inc., meanwhile, recently completed and brought into commercial operations its 3.4-MW biomass power project in Matalam, North Cotabato.

Other notable projects in the pipeline are the combined 15-MW commercial and industrial solar projects in Cebu and Laguna to be finished by 2025 and the 11-MW Cotabato solar project targeted for completion by 2026.

In June, FDC Renewables Corp. received a green lane certificate of endorsement from the Board of Investments for its 33.4-MW hydroelectric power project straddling Nueva Vizcaya and Pangasinan.

The certification will help streamline, simplify and automate the permit and license application processes for the project, with approvals to be expedited to ensure swift realization of the investment.