4 Things to Know About Your Partner, EDC
1
We continue to make wise decisions that allow us to improve our operations and grow our business.
The Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has recorded steady and reliable income for the past three years, despite challenges.
2
Our commitment to sustainability is also a commitment to share value.
We continue to make innovations to enhance our sustainability performance. In 2019, EDC, together with all subsidiaries of First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPHC), strengthened its commitment to forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future. We choose this path because we believe it is the only way to create lasting value for all our stakeholders, and it is inseparable from the Lopez Values that have, and always will, define us.
As part of this commitment, we have also transitioned to Integrated Reporting (IR) to allow us to better communicate how we use our resources in order to create and share value with all our stakeholders.
Sustainability is in our DNA: we are now on our 11th year of sustainability reporting.
Shared value through integrated thinking: Integrated reporting illustrates how we create and share value.
3
EDC is prepared for a future with greater risk.
We have stepped up our efforts to build resilience into our business. We continue to make our assets more resilient and our operations more efficient, and thereby more competitive, so that we are better able to produce clean, reliable, renewable energy–particularly geothermal energy.
Investing in Resilience
EDC’s operations rely heavily on harnessing energy from natural resources such as geothermal wells, water, wind, and sunlight. While this allows for cleaner energy production, this also makes our operations vulnerable to certain natural phenomena, such as geohazards and climate change. As such, part of our risk management strategy is to embed resiliency into our assets.
Our geothermal steam fields and power plants currently enjoy high reliability and availability. While we have made significant gains, we also recognize that we can continue to improve on our performance and strengthen our focus on equipment reliability and resilience to climate change and geohazards.
Our commitment to enhancing resilience and investing in risk mitigation for our facilities delivered good results for us this year. The work we put in to reinforce our BacMan facility against natural hazards was put to the test with four typhoons in 2020, including Super Typhoon Rolly in late October. Indeed our investments in resilience paid off. Despite the strength of
the typhoon, our BacMan facility sustained minimal damage. The typhoon-proofed cooling towers and the landslide mitigation measures held up well against the storms. At the height of the typhoons, we implemented voluntary preventive shutdowns; within a week, our facilities were back online, delivering much needed electricity to our customers.
The main constraint, however, was in the damage sustained outside our facilities. For instance, along the Naga-Tiwi line, 26 electrical towers fell, which effectively cut us off from the grid and left the province of Albay and Sorsogon powerless. Our BacMan team was quick to mount “Island Operations” in response to this situation.
We secured generator sets to provide black- start capabilities and ensured that robust protection systems were in place. This allowed EDC to jumpstart the grid and supply electricity to portions of Albay and Sorsogon in a matter of three days, bringing much-needed relief to communities in these provinces. This was done in collaboration with two local electric cooperatives, even if they did not have power supply agreements with EDC.
Indeed, a regenerative business is committed to elevating the lives of communities and strengthening partnerships. The challenges presented by the typhoon allowed us to act on this commitment.
Moving forward, our mission is perfectly clear— we need to focus on increasing our steam supply and lessening our outages. Implementing interventions to protect our existing steam supply and steam infrastructure will be critical. Completing the drilling of six wells during the latter half of 2020 gives us a good springboard to continue our drilling operations in 2021, even amid a still troublesome pandemic.
The go-live of our enterprise asset management (EAM) system, which is now in hypercare, is equally important. Gaining the confidence to use the system, and embedding the processes into our work routine, will be key to reaping the promised benefits of the system and hopefully, contribute to the reduction of our unplanned outages.
In 2019, EDC reported a record-high performance attributed to higher revenue and lower net financial expenses, bolstered by the excellent performance of its individual business units, particularly the higher generated volume of its geothermal power plants.
4
The future is bright.
The outlook for clean energy is positive and demand is growing. Many companies are now mandating the purchase of green energy in their procurement practices.
We are confident that our business will continue to grow, especially as more people understand the importance of making better and cleaner energy choices.
As a pioneer and leader in going beyond sustainability, EDC is also in a prime position to be a leader in climate action. Energy permeates many aspects of our life and our activities; through our low-carbon energy portfolio, we can help different sectors of society lower their carbon footprint as well. New retail marketing policies, such as the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) and, eventually, the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP), will also make it easier to distribute clean energy to more Filipino businesses and institutions.
Part of this leadership entails working with other like-minded organizations in multi- stakeholder initiatives that will forward climate action in the country. Additionally, there are also opportunities to mentor the youth on climate change and climate action as a form of intergenerational support.
Our 2020 Integrated Report
Our Integrated Report tells the story of our efforts to achieve our business objectives, hand-in-hand with our sustainability aspirations.
