Banking on its revved appetite for growth, Norwegian firm SN Power is now gearing up for expansion opportunities as well as ventures into planned greenfield power projects in the deregulated Philippine power industry.

The company albeit emphasized that onward investments will all be undertaken with their local partner, Aboitiz Power Corporation. Preference remains for hydropower projects although there are aspirations for the Norwegian firm to explore wind power undertakings, such as what they have done in other areas of operations, Chile in particular.

“We are now looking at expansion and greenfield opportunities. We are very happy with the ‘marriage’ with the Aboitiz (group) so all project developments we will do for the Philippines will be with them,” SN Power vice president for Southeast Asia Torbjorn Kirkeby-Garstad has noted. There are no definite numbers yet as to the planned capacity additions, but the SN Power executive indicated that proposed projects will likely take off from blueprint in the next 3 to 5 years. The company said it will play a part both to the short-term solution in the country’s power supply needs via the uprating done at acquired assets; while its medium term contribution will be on the propounded greenfield projects.

Together with the Aboitiz group, through their corporate vehicle SN Aboitiz Power Inc. (SNAP), the magnitude of investments they already poured reached US$1.2 billion. Their asset acquisitions include the 360-megawatt Magat and 175-MW Ambuklao-Binga hydropower facilities.

For future hydro investments, Kirkeby-Garstad emphasized the two major factors they are cautiously evaluating – hydrologic risks and market prices.

“We are analyzing the river system in the Philippines based on studies presented to us. Of course, we are not going to build a dam where thousands of people will be displaced. We will go to areas with less social impact and we’re actually looking more at pursuing run-of-river developments,” he stressed.

The SN Power executive described the company’s investment planning strategy as “careful and based on proper planning and step-by-step process” to ensure feasible and viable project implementation. “We will not rush, and we will work carefully into developing the prospects,” he added.

Despite the extreme hurdles of ‘too much water spillage in 2009’ and the El Nino phenomenon this year, the company’s deep understanding of the hydropower business enabled them to pull through the tough times.

The brunt of the drought season, he bared prompted “daily discussions about hydrologic risks at SNAP. We are looking at different strategies to hedge our sales, and so far, we haven’t landed into something definite about that. Hedging is more on making sure that the cash flow will be there,” Kirkeby-Garstad explained.

Amid the strike of extreme weather conditions though, the SN Power executive averred that there’s really nothing much that surprised them.“When we did our analysis, we looked at the pattern and history of hydrology in this area, so we know that there’s extreme dry and wet seasons.”

And while the Norwegian firm had its share of tough learning points in other jurisdictions, the company executive qualified that “the Philippines is a success story at SN Power;” hence, it remains their priority area for investments as they simultaneously work on expanding their generation portfolio globally to reach 4,000 megawatts by 2015.