LOPEZ-LED First Gen Corp. reported a 4.4% increase in attributable net income to $82.3 million for the first quarter, driven by lower operating expenses.
Revenues declined by 2.2% to $583.3 million due to lower electricity sales volumes across the natural gas and geothermal platforms, based on its financial report released on Tuesday.
For the first three months, revenues from the natural gas segment fell by 1.4% to $381.1 million amid a decline in revenues from the San Gabriel plant following the expiration of its power supply agreement with Manila Electric Co. in February last year.
This was partially offset by higher revenues from the Santa Rita and San Lorenzo plants due to increased fuel revenues, and from Avion due to higher sales under its ancillary services procurement agreement.
Revenues from the geothermal, solar, and wind (GSW) portfolio declined by 6.5% to $173.2 million, weighed down by lower average sales volumes and lower average selling prices.
Meanwhile, revenues from the hydropower platform rose by 50.2% to $8.6 million.
The natural gas portfolio accounted for the bulk of revenues at 66%, followed by GSW at 30%, and hydropower at 4%.
Operating expenses fell by 3.8% to $429.04 million, driven by lower costs of electricity sales as well as reduced general and administrative expenses.
“First Gen’s portfolio of power plants are available for dispatch as the country experiences this punishing heat. We have been hard at work in making sure that the vital resources our company provides are able to deliver, especially during these coming local elections,” First Gen President and Chief Operating Officer Francis Giles B. Puno said in a statement.
At present, First Gen has a total of 3,668 megawatts of combined capacity from its portfolio of plants running on geothermal, wind, hydropower, solar energy, and natural gas. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
