SPC Power zooms in on renewable energy

CEBU, Philippines —  Publicly-listed SPC Power Corporation has zoomed in its attention to renewable energy expansion this year, particularly in solar, hydro and battery generation.

SPC Power, formerly Salcon Power, is now clenching deals for a probable solar plant installation, a hydro generation plant in Mindanao via a joint venture and battery generated plants, announced SPC Power Corporation chairman Alfredo L. Henares during the company’s Annual Stockholders Meeting held virtually yesterday.

While the company incurred a 9.6 percent reduction of its consolidated income in 2020 due to COVID-19 disruption, Henares said the company pursues projects albeit slowly, considering that it has high level of cash and no concurrent bank debt.

In his report, Henares told stakeholders that the company generated a consolidated total comprehensive income of P1.6 billion, a 9.6 percent lower than P1.8 billion it generated in 2019.

Henares blamed the difficult economic condition brought about by the pandemic as the main culprit of the decline, aside from the fact that the business or the industry in general is already battered with increasing competition, pressures of minimizing the use of fossil fuel, among others.

Nevertheless, the company is projecting a P42 million capital expenditure “just to keep the existing capital assets.”

An additional P220 million might be added to its capex this year to fund the possible new projects.

“We are deeply into working at renewable energy [venture],” Henares said revealing further that announcement to its formal entry to RE (renewable energy) generation may be announced late this year or early 2022.

While navigating the unimpressive performance in 2020, SPC is picking up positive signal in its 2021 projection, with six percent improvement of overall business performance in the first quarter of 2021.

Company executives expressed optimism of 2021’s upward growth trajectory, as the first quarter figure indicated the fast recovery of lost demand last year.

SPC Corporation is the mother company of Kepco SPC Power Corporation.