Banpu Power announces first-half results

The company said its strong financial performance reflected its steadily increasing power-generating capacity.
Banpu Power also reaffirmed its strategic plan to balance its conventional and renewable power generation to achieve a total equity-based power generation capacity of 4,300 MWe, of which a minimum of 20 per cent would be renewables-based by the end of 2025. This is in line with its greener and sustainable power-generation policy.
Voravudhi Linananda, chief executive officer, said: “Our operating results in the first half of 2017 reflect the steady operational performance of and strong revenue from our power plants.
“The operating outcomes are in accordance with the company’s strategic plan since its listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. At present, we have a total of 26 power projects, 14 of which are already operating commercially and 12 others, in Lao PDR, China and Japan, are under development.
“At the end of the second quarter, the company had a total equity-based power generating capacity of 2,057 MWe from our operating power plants, of which 1,903 MWe comes from coal-fired power plants and 154.4 MWe from renewable power plants.
“Meanwhile, the solar power plants in China and Japan have increased their power-generating capacity in accordance with the company’s greener power-generation policy.”
In the second quarter this year, the company recorded Bt1.78 billion realisation of profit from joint venture, a 151 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter. The share of profit includes BPP’s equity income of Bt732 million (including translation exchange loss of Bt55 million), a 32 per cent increase QoQ, and Hongsa’s equity income of Bt1.06 billion (including translation exchange loss of Bt38 million) – a substantial increase compared to Bt570 million last quarter. 
The company said that the significant improvement in Hongsa was mainly driven by the high power generation of all three units with the increasing equivalent availability factor of 87 per cent.
In China, the three combined heat and power plants (CHP) in Luannan, Zhengding and Zouping generated revenue of Bt1.08 billion. Meanwhile, the solar power plants reported revenue of Bt196 million, an increase of 66 per cent quarter-on-quarter, mainly from the operation of the Hui’en and Deyuan projects.
Banpu Power said that it continues to grow its business through a greener approach. The company’s solar power plants in China and Japan have equity-based power generating capacity of 152.1 MW and 131.3 MW respectively. By 2020, the power-generating capacity will increase by 620 MWe from the upcoming nine solar projects in Japan which are scheduled to start the commercial operation date (COD) from 2018 to 2020, the High Efficiency Low Emission (HELE) coal-fired power plants in China; Shanxi Lu Guang, which is now in the construction phase, and Luannan CHP plant phase 2 and 3, which are scheduled to achieve the COD in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“As a regional player, Banpu Power has been generating asset growth in every country it currently operates including those in the Asia-Pacific region with potential high demand for electricity,” Voravudhi said.
“We firmly believe that we will achieve the strategic plan announced before the company was listed on the stock exchange. Most importantly, Banpu Power is ready to adjust to the power sector business trend and upcoming innovations in order to enhance the company’s strengths as well as to create sustainable value for shareholders and stakeholders.”