THE energy unit of Vivant Corp. is setting aside at least P1 billion in capital expenditure this year as it plans to bid for power generation projects in off-grid areas, including those in Palawan.
The budget this year comes as the listed company is bullish about its financial performance in 2019 when its new power plant projects started to turn in revenues.
“For the first time, there’s a good sense we could break the P2-billion mark,” Emil Andre M. Garcia, chief operating officer of Vivant Energy Corp., told reporters last week. He was referring to the expected income of Vivant Corp., in which he is one of the directors.
“But again, the numbers are still being finalized but it was a good year,” he added.
Mr. Garcia is also optimistic about 2020 as the company embarks on new projects.
“We’re joining the bid for Paleco (Palawan Electric Cooperative). There’s an invitation to bid for El Nido which we’ll join as well,” he added about plans to enter the popular tourist destination in Palawan, the off-grid island province in Luzon.
Mr. Garcia said the subsidiary is also bidding for projects in the island of Marinduque.
“With all of that, I’m sure we can get at least one or two more projects,” he said. “We hope to groundbreak within this year.”
He placed the target capacity for the Paleco bid at 20 megawatts (MW), while that of El Nido at 10 MW. He said the Marinduque bid could reach a total capacity of 16 MW, which is broken to three projects with the biggest component at 8 MW.
Asked about the budget for the projects, he said: “We could go over a billion [pesos].”
Aside from the projects that are up for bidding, Vivant Energy targets to start this year a diesel-fired power facility in Bantayan, an island town north of Cebu City.
“We’ll start construction there in April,” Mr. Garcia said.
The project involves the construction and operation of a 23-MW power generation facility, namely: two bunker fuel-fired units each with a capacity of 7.5 MW; and three bunker fuel-fired units each with a capacity of 2.8 MW.
The facility is under a 15-year contract to supply 15 MW of net dependable capacity to Bantayan Electric Cooperative, which awarded the project to partners Vivant Integrated Diesel Corp. and Gigawatt Power, Inc. in Oct. 2019.
The company is also building a facility using a hybrid of solar, diesel and battery technologies to serve the municipalities of Linapacan and Culion in Palawan.
The project is under Culna Renewable Energy Corp., a partnership among Vivant Renewable Energy Corp., Gigawatt Power and WEnergy Global Pte. Ltd.
In Culion, the facility is a diesel-solar-battery hybrid with a respective capacity of 2.42 MW, 2.8 MW, and 4.78 MW, respectively, at a cost of P632 million.
In Linapacan, the diesel-solar hybrid will have a respective capacity of 540 kilowatts and 330 kilowatts. The cost is placed at P125 million.
Shem Jose W. Garcia, Vivant Corp. head corporate communications and business development innovation, described 2019 as a “really good year” for the listed company. — Victor V. Saulon
