US energy giant remains upbeat over PH prospects

US power giant AES Corp. remains upbeat over the Philippine energy sector’s prospects, noting that its 660-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired power facility in Zambales continues to provide the company a platform for growth.

While the company has been divesting some of its assets in China, Brazil, Spain and even in the United States, AES still regards the Masinloc power plant as an asset that will be able to “efficiently add capacity in follow-on expansions.”

It explained in an investor information report that brownfield power projects, like its proposed expansion of the Masinloc facility, could benefit from “existing infrastructure such as land, coal handling and ash disposal.”

Last year, AES said it would push through with its $1-billion expansion plan to add another 600 MW to the existing capacity of the Masinloc facility. To date, the company already has an “environmental permit in place” and that it is now working on securing an engineering, procurement and construction and long-term financeable contracts for the expansion, it said.

Through its acquisition of the Masinloc I facility from state-run National Power Corp. in 2008, AES became the largest foreign investor in the country’s power sector.

According to an earlier AES statement, the Philippine economy is projected to grow at an average of over five percent a year through 2015, with demand for electricity set to grow five percent throughout the same period.

AES is a Fortune 500 global power company with generation and distribution businesses in 30 countries. The company owns and manages $40 billion worth of assets. In 2009, its revenue reached $14 billion.  Amy R. Remo