ENERGY Development Corp. (EDC) is allotting P30 billion next year for its capital expenditure, according to Erwin Avante, company chief finance officer.
“We’re still lining up the financing but yes, we will definitely borrow,” Avante said, when asked how the company will fund the capex.
Most of the expenses will be for drilling geothermal wells and other ongoing growth projects, Avante added.
Last October, EDC announced it was granted surface exploration and drilling rights needed as preliminary survey assignments plus exploration (PSPE) for two greenfield geothermal projects in Indonesia.
The company said Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resource awarded the PSPE for the Koto Sani Tanjung Bingkung and Bora Pulu geothermal projects.
EDC said each resource area has a possible capacity of up to 40 megawatts (MW) and a development cost of $228 million, for a total capacity of 80 MW and investment cost of $456 million.
The company eyes to contribute to the 13,000 MW low-carbon energy portfolio of its parent firm First Gen Corp. targeted by 2030. Of that volume, 9,000 MW is eyed to be from RE sources. EDC’s current 1,169.85 MW geothermal portfolio comprises 80 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity, making the Philippines the third largest geothermal energy producer in the world.
