The announcement was made by EDC Vice Chairman and CEO Francis Giles Puno during the event “Zeroing in on Net Zero; From Corporate Pledges to Action” held in Pasig City in Metro Manila.
Puno further said that the new wells mostly be located in the Bacon-Manito geothermal field in Leyte, and in the Mindanao geothermal field. “All of this is for the continued operations of Energy Development Corporation and, on top of that, for our growth as well,” he added.
“Over the next three years, we will go through a campaign to make sure that geothermal energy is indeed sustainable,” Puno said during a panel discussion. “So our main focus during this time will be to make sure that we can deliver the amount of renewable source of geothermal for our customers, and part of that is a need to drill close to around 40 wells for that time period.”
Puno further provided details on where the funding will come from. “We will do a phased kind of borrowing for certain periods for this, and [some funds] will come from internally generated funding. Specifically, the funds will be used for the maintenance of our work-over wells (current wells) and the 40 new wells mentioned earlier.”
In late 2022, EDC announced a five-year expansion plan that targets 100 MW of additional power generation capacity, which involves the expansion of existing sites and development of greenfield sites. Earlier this year, EDC had also indicated plans for drilling in two exploration sites, one of which is the Amacan prospect in Mindanao that was the subject of an RFP for feasibility studies published in 2022 with funding from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).
