Publicly-listed Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has programmed P20.6-billion capital expenditures (capex) for the next five years, with the chunk of P7 billion to be spent for next year.

EDC President and Chief Operating Officer Richard B. Tantoco noted this will cover both under-ground resource developments such as drilling for steam resource which commands capital outlay of P12.2 billion; while above-ground ventures such as those for pipelines and power plant rehabilitation or expansion will need additional P8.4 billion.

Additionally, the company also casts on blueprint roughly $1.0 billion investment, to form part of its proposed expansion for greenfield power projects. The overall target will be to shore up the company’s total local installed capacity by 1,500 megawatts in the longer term; and further to that, will be investment foray overseas.

For the expansion ventures, Tantoco noted they will shell out $3.5 million per megawatt of targeted capacity for the geothermal projects. Since they have been looking at 230 megawatts for geothermal capacity expansion alone, this will entail investment of $805 million.

The other near-term greenfield venture they are preparing for would be the 86-MW wind project in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, wherein they plan to pump in equity of $100 million. The cost reference for wind power project development has been set at $2.5 million to $3.0 million, hence, bringing total project cost to $215 million to $258 million.

When the wind facility’s construction comes into fruition though, it was noted that 70-percent of the project financing may be bankrolled by loans.

After registering vigorous income of P5.8 billion in the first half, the Lopez-controlled firm is now looking at prospects of further improving its bottom line.

Referencing on bank analysts’ assumption of probable full-year income of P8.7 billion to P9.1 billion, Tantoco noted that they have been partly taking that into consideration for profit guidance, thus anchoring their expectations to figures close to those.