AC Energy investing $1b in 1,500-MW plants in 2020

By Alena Mae S. Flores – December 08, 2019 at 07:10 pm
from manilastandard.net

AC Energy Inc., the power unit of the Ayala Group, plans a “significant and massive” $1-billion investment next year for its 1,500-megawatt expansion here and abroad.

“Next year will be a significant and massive investment year for AC Energy as a group,” AC Energy chief executive Eric Francia said.

Francia said the company raised $1.5 billion from several fund-raising activities, such as asset sales and from the capital market.

“Around $500 million of that is already deployed and committed, so we still have a billion [dollars] to deploy next year,” Francia said.

He said the company was looking at investments in “predominantly renewables” in six markets, such as Vietnam, Australia, India, Myanmar and the Philippines.

“We’re looking to build over 1,500 MW of attributable capacity to AC Energy, over 1,500 MW for financial close by 2020. That’s where we’ll deploy the billion dollars,” he said.

He said the company was more focused on investments in the Philippines, Australia and Vietnam, each of which would capture a fourth of the new 1,500-MW capacity.

The remaining capacity would come from India, Myanmar and other potential markets.

“The critical mass so far for us is really the Philippines, Australia and Vietnam,” he said.

Francia said the projects would begin construction next year and were expected to take only a year to build expect those in Australia which could take longer because of labor restrictions.

Francia said investments in the Philippines would be in solar, wind and diesel peaking plants.
Investments in Australia will be solar and a possible pumped-hydro and while those in Vietnam will be mostly wind projects.

“In Vietnam, a lot of that is wind because we’re now eyeing the wind feed-in tariff that has the November 2020 deadline,” Francia said.

“And then for India, it’s mostly solar and then in Myanmar, hybrid, mini-grids,” he said.