Egco reports 14% profit rise in Q2

In the first half, Egco earned Bt4.05 billion on revenue of Bt9.23 billion.

President Sahust Pratuknukul said yesterday that in the second quarter, Egco made progress in its initiatives, acquiring assets in projects, with a continued focus on power generating, and investing in projects with power purchase agreements (PPA). The company has also sold all its shares in a joint venture whose PPAs have only a few years left to fund new projects, he said.

Its solar farm in Lop Buri started operating on May 2. Its Theppana wind-power plant in Chaiyaphum started operating on July 18. They were expected to boost second-quarter net profit.

The company has invested in the 113-megawatt Boco Rock wind farm in New South Wales state through the acquisition of 100 per cent of Asia Pacific Renewables on June 26. The project has entered a 15-year PPA with Energy Australia.

The company agreed to divest 40 per cent of Conal Holdings Corporation to Alsons Consolidated Resources on July 2. 

Khanom Electricity Generating Co, a wholly owned subsidiary, on July 25 signed a 25-year PPA with Egat for total contracted capacity of 930MW from its Khanom power plant project on a site adjacent to the existing Khanom power plant in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Construction has commenced on three projects – Solarco in Nakhon Pathom, Hat Yai municipal waste power plant in Songkhla and Xayaburi run-of-the-river dam in Laos. 

Solarco is expected to begin commercial operations in September-December, Hat Yai in January and Xayaburi in January 2019.

Domestically, three small power producer projects – TJ Cogen in Pathum Thani and TP Cogen and SK Cogen in Ratchaburi, with combined installed capacity of 375MW – are undergoing environmental-impact assessments and EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) preparation. 

“Overseas, we are negotiating the investment agreement for the development of the 500MW expansion of the Quezon coal-fired power plant in the Philippines. Besides these under-development projects, the company will continue to seek new opportunities to invest in other new potential projects to maintain its business growth momentum,” Sahust said.

Egco currently runs 19 operating plants locally and overseas with total contracted capacity of 4.51 gigawatts. It has nine projects under construction and development with total contracted capacity of 1.75GW. The total contracted capacity is 6.26GW.