ACEN partners with Indonesian firm for RE projects
By Myrna M. Velasco – May 17, 2022, 3:10 PM
from Manila Bulletin
Ayala-led ACEN Corporation has partnered with Indonesian firm Puri Usaha Group for investment in Suryagen Capital Pte. Ltd., which has a business platform in renewable energy (RE) projects development in Indonesia.
In a statement to the media, the Ayala firm noted that the new joint venture “will develop large scale solar, battery energy storage system and green hydrogen projects in Indonesia.”
The RE installations currently in the portfolio of Suryagen are the targeted projects in the Batam, Bintan and Karimun (BBK) islands as well as East Nusa Tenggara province.
ACEN explained that the BKK sites are also “where the majority of the projects that the Puri Usaha Group have been developing are located, with the aim to begin the construction of its first project by 2023.”
There are no specific amount of investments or targeted megawatt-installations that had been divulged yet by the Ayala energy firm on this new partnership with the Indonesian company.
According to Ben Subrata, chief executive officer of Puri Usaha Group, their company considers ACEN “an ideal strategic partner… to strengthen our overall capabilities in undertaking our major projects around Indonesia beginning with the historic cross border green electricity project from Batam to Singapore.”
The Puri Usaha Group is involved in the formation of a consortium that will enable cross-border import of RE from Indonesia to the Singaporean market – and that venture is currently under the supervision of the Energy Market Authority of Singapore.
The wheeling of RE-generated capacity from Indonesia for the Singapore market is envisioned to be concretized “via a subsea cable,” and this is the first project the Suryagen platform intends to develop.
Patrice Clausse, chief operating officer of AC Energy International, emphasized that the Ayala firm’s partnership with Puri Usaha had been anchored on common vision of becoming key contributors to the development of RE projects in Indonesia.
“It is a vision that we share, as the country has tremendous potential to continue to grow and expand its renewable energy assets and we are excited about the potential of the Suryagen platform” the ACEN executive stressed.
At this stage, the Ayala firm indicated that the newly minted partners “have agreed to work together in a platform for the joint development of groundbreaking renewable energy projects in Indonesia focusing on large-scale solar power plants, battery energy storage system and green hydrogen projects,” albeit it qualified that these are still “subject to applicable regulatory approvals and execution of definitive documentation.”
ACEN is eyeing to bring to commercial fruition at least 5,000MW of RE capacity by 2025; and that Indonesia has always been one of the offshore markets it has been eyeing for expansion projects in the Asian region.
