SN Aboitiz Power Corp., the joint venture of Aboitiz Power Corp. and SN Power of Norway, plans to add 500 megawatts of power capacity with total investments of $1.75 billion until 2027.
“We are making progress (on the 500 MW expansion). We continue to make progress on the socio-political acceptability. Looking optimistic but let’s see. We will also definitely look at other hydros. Hopefully, there is privatization and if there is, we will be interested with that,” SNAP president and chief executive officer Joseph Yu said.
“We are also looking at other RE sources that can complement our hydro. I think if we could store solar… but it involves a different set of competence,” he said.
SN Aboitiz currently has a total hydro generation capacity of 633.5 MW. It owns and operates the Magat hydro that has a maximum output of 380 MW on the border of Isabela and Ifugao.
SN Aboitiz also owns and operates the 105-MW Ambuklao hydro and the 140-MW Binga hydro in the province of Benguet.
The company recently started operations of the 8.5-megawatt Maris Main Canal 1 hydro power plant in Isabela.
Yu said the company might spend about $1.75 billion for the expansion.
“Funding will be a mix of equity and bank loan,” Yu said, “Right now, our hydro piece is far more realistic between building something and privatizing,” he said.
The company, meanwhile, expects a 20-percent increase in revenues this year amid stronger water input.
“For us, 2017 is a very strong year because the front half of the year, we had a lot of inflow. We had very good hydrology so we were able to generate much, much more in the front half of the year than we normally can. In first two quarters of the year, very strong. And in fact I think Magat has set a record in terms of total kilowatt-hours produced,” Yu said earlier.