[ Manila Bulletin Online ] May 23, 2008
By MALOU M. MOZO
CEBU CITY — A 246-MW coal-fired power plant in Toledo, Cebu, estimated to cost some $ 450 million, is targeted for completion by 2010.
This power plant, which is a joint venture with the Aboitiz Power Corporation (APC), and considered to be one of the firm’s notable investments, is expected to help meet higher demand for power in the province.
President Arroyo, the other day, had ordered the Department of Energy (DoE) to provide immediate, not long-term solutions – to the power supply deficiency in Panay.
"The power shortage in Panay is a big problem that we have to address now," the President said during a Cabinet meeting in Bohol where she had inaugurated the Panglao Airport Tuesday.
During the Cabinet meeting, the President recalled that she had ground broken several power plants in the country that would be useful in 2010.
The APC is one of the four major business entities of the conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), a publicly listed company of the Aboitiz Group, which had just posted a profit of R5.8 billion in 2007, a 54 percent jump over 2006 earnings of R3.8 billion.
Both the power and banking groups drove AEV’s robust performance, accounting for 61 percent and 23 percent of total income distribution, respectively, reported Jon Ramon Aboitiz, AEV president and chief executive officer during Monday’s 2008 Annual Stockholders’ Meeting at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
"The company is now well positioned to expand as the Philippine power sector is deregulated and government continues to sell off power assets," Aboitiz said.
The conglomerate has four business groups, namely power, banking, transport, and food.
The power group continued to account for the lion’s share of AEV’s earnings, this despite the company’s ownership dilution following the listing of Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) in July 2007.
Erramon Aboitiz, AEV chief operating officer, said that for the first time the power generation business accounted for a larger share of the power group’s earnings last year, contributing to 61 percent of APC’s net income, equivalent to P2 billion, an 88 percent increase from the 2006.
In 2007, APC concluded several strategic acquisitions in power plants with a total capacity of 712 megawatts (MW), making equity investments reaching to R11.2 billion.
APC ended 2007 with investments in generation assets with a total capacity of 1.035 MW.
Income generated by the power distribution group grew by 11 percent or P1.3 billion from R1.16 billion in 2006, accounting for 39 percent of the power group’s total income contribution to AEV.
Last year, total electricity sales by the group rose to 12 percent, or 3,915 gigawatt hours. Its pool of customers also increased by three percent or 637,000 by year-end.
Jon Ramon said that systems losses for Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), the second largest electric utility nationwide, is maintained within the 9.5 percent mandated cap set by law.
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