FEU taps clean energy from First Gen

First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group has bagged the deal to supply clean power to two campuses of Far Eastern University (FEU).

In a statement over the weekend, First Gen said this fresh power deal with FEU would cover its campuses in Manila and Alabang—involving 600 kilowatts (kW) of electricity for the FEU Alabang campus in Muntinlupa and another 650 kW for the FEU Institute of Technology, located near the main campus in Manila.

In 2017, FEU also tapped First Gen for the direct supply of electricity for parts of its main campus, which was pushed under the government’s retail competition and open access (RCOA) policy.

Cheaper power

RCOA allows power customers consuming at least 500 kW a month to purchase cheaper electricity from retailers other than the existing distributors in their area.

“Our aim is to have the greatest social and learning impact with the smallest environmental footprint. We take great pride in now operating fully on renewable power, some of which is own produced, but mostly through this partnership,” said FEU president Juan Miguel Montinola.

“Diversifying power sources and working with independent power producers help reduce volatility in power costs but the overall carbon footprint as well. We’re privileged to work with FEU over the past seven years, expanding to other campuses as they move forward in their decarbonization journey,” added Carlo Vega, First Gen vice president for marketing, trading and economics.

First Gen is the leading power generation firm in the local market, with 1,651 megawatts of total capacity from a portfolio of 26 power plants running on geothermal, hydro, wind and solar energy.

In the January-September period, First Gen’s net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company sank by 16 percent to $206.9 million from a year ago’s $246.79 million due to the weaker performance of its wind, geothermal and solar operations.

Revenues from the sale of electricity also slightly fell by 2.3 percent to $1.85 billion. INQ