Energy Development Corp (EDC) is on track to completing its 40-well drilling campaign by 2026, with only 11 wells remaining, its parent firm First Gen Corp. said over the weekend.
EDC is undertaking the drilling to boost its geothermal capacity.
“So far, we only have 11 wells remaining out of that 40, with six this year and five next year,” EDC president and chief operating officer Jerome Cainglet said.
“That’s what we’re going to do with the new wells, so we’re hoping, based on our budget, to estimate around an additional 85 megawatts. That’s all for those new wells. But we think while some wells fail, some wells did better than expected. So we think we’re going to exceed that,” Cainglet said.
First Gen president Francis Giles Puno said EDC undertook its most aggressive drilling campaign in its history, drilling 24 new wells in 2024 and increasing its rig count to seven from just one operational rig.
“Another 19 wells are lined up in 2025, which includes our first exploration drilling for our Amacan growth project in Mindanao. We expect to add more than 140 MW of baseload steam capacity this year alone,” Puno said.
He said numerous other plant improvements would deliver more gigawatt-hours of generation for a prolonged period.
“EDC is also commissioning 83 MW of new geothermal capacity and 40 MWh of battery storage, delivering round-the-clock clean power for our customers,” he said.
Puno also said they hoped to advance their geothermal concessions in Indonesia starting this year.
“We have three concessions in Indonesia, and we’re hoping this year we can move to the next level. Indonesia went through a change; they have a new president. Once that normalizes, we’ll start pursuing concessions… We hope to start drilling this year,” he said.
