Global Business Power Corporation is lining up prospective capital outlay of additional $250 million to $300 million for proposed venture shift in renewable energy development, still in its niche investment site of Visayas.

In an interview with reporters, Global Power chief finance officer Jaime T. Azurin noted that the plan is to put RE capacity of approximately 100 megawatts, which will be a combination of hydro and biomass capacities.

He pointed out that this shall be aligned as the company’s compliance move to the renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that will soon be concretized as a policy under the Renewable Energy Act.

“It would be hydro and biomass. We’re now looking at Visayas, it’s where we prefer to develop our portfolio at this time,” Azurin said. The targeted project sites are in Panay and Cebu.

“We are looking at three possible sites, for both hydro and biomass. We are still doing the technical study,” he said.

As the company is still pre-occupied with project completion process for its coal capacity in the grid this year, Azurin indicated that they can come up with firmer plans on their RE investments by next year.

He explained that the planned projects are designed as “substitute capacity,” especially whenever the more intermittent sources would go off-line.

The business strategy shift, according to the power firm official, is most appropriate at this point since Global Power had already did its share in helping solve the power supply problem in the Visayas.

“We did coal first because that was the short-term solution needed by the grid. But now, we are in a better position because we have now the supply, so we can already develop renewables,” Azurin emphasized.

The rule of thumb for both biomass and hydro could be $2.5 million per megawatt, but since this is aligned as a future solution for the grid, cost assumptions may escalate up to $3.0 million per megawatt in seven years time.

With Visayas power supply temporarily eased, the company said its RE capacity can be programmed on stream by 2017, or the time when the grid needs additional capacity again to ensure supply reliability for end-users.