YUCHENGCO-LED Petro Energy Resources Corp. (PERC) is looking at the possibility of going into the energy storage systems (ESS) business and other emerging technologies.
PERC Senior Vice President for Corporate Services Arlan Profeta told The Manila Times that the company plans to diversify its renewable energy portfolio.
"Yes, we are actually looking into that. This is because of our goal to become diversified in our technologies, as we do not want to rely on just one [technology]," Profeta said during a Yuchengco Group of Companies sustainability forum for businesses held in Makati last Thursday.
"We are looking into new, emerging technologies as well as offshore wind [projects] and the like, but note [that] we are still studying the possibilities for all of them," he said.
Looking forward to 2025 and beyond, Profeta said PERC would focus on its solar projects.
"For this year and next, we will remain with solar technologies, as we are developing four new related projects. Two are expected to come online this year and the other two in 2025."
"What we have right now in the pipeline is around 112 megawatts (MW), but we are actively looking at other areas throughout the Philippines to construct future renewable energy (RE) projects," he added.
By 2028 and 2029, PERC's energy portfolio is targeted to have increased to around 500 MW utilizing various RE resources.
Profeta added that the company was also considering taking part in the upcoming third round of the Department of Energy's Green Energy Auction, or GEA-3, which will focus on geothermal, impounding hydro, pumped storage hydro, and run-of-river hydro technologies.
"But I cannot confirm anything right now. We will inform the public once we have decided," he said.
For the first half of 2024, PERC reported an 11-percent decline in net income to P527 million year-on-year, mainly due to higher financing charges incurred from loans it secured to fund its 20 percent acquisition of EEI Power Corp. (EEIPC).
Consolidated revenues in the period rose 43 percent to P1.41 billion but said that earnings "took a hit" as a result of its direct equity acquisitions of the EEIPC stake as well as EEIPC's 44-percent equity in PetroSolar Corp. and 7.5 percent equity in PetroGreen Energy Corp. (PGEC), making the latter a 75-percent owned unit of PERC, with the balance of 25 percent held by Kyuden International Corp.
PERC shares on Friday were down 5.45 percent at P3.82 each.