ACEN acquires 8 operating wind projects in Texas
BY MYRNA M. VELASCO – Mar 16, 2023 5:38 PM
from Manila Bulletin
Ayala-led ACEN Corporation has inked a purchase and sale agreement (PSA) with American firm GlidePath for the acquisition of the latter’s eight operating wind projects with aggregate capacity of 136 megawatts in northern Texas.
This will be the entry point of ACEN and its partner UPC Power Solutions LLC in the United States, another core market that these two firms have been eyeing to accelerate their investments on when it comes to renewable energy (RE) installations.
The Ayala company first announced in April that its subsidiary ACEN USA LLC had formed a strategic partnership with Pivot Power Management (PivotGen) and UPC Solar & Wind Investments LLC “to pursue opportunities to acquire operating wind projects in the US.”
ACEN further indicated that it will be exploring “strategies for extending their useful life through preventative maintenance and repowering.”
As of this writing, the Ayala company has not disclosed the scale of investment injected by the partner-firms in that particular asset buy.
The acquired facilities are expected to have total electricity generation of 360 gigawatt-hours every year; and it could provide services to 24,000 households while avoiding carbon dioxide emissions of roughly 127,000 metric tons.
As narrated by ACEN International CEO Patrice Clausse, “we’ve long set our sights on the US as our next market following our sustained success in the Asia Pacific,” noting further that “we are committed to enact the accelerated green energy transition globally, and these new partnerships ensure that ACEN is well-placed to harness the vast opportunities in the US renewables space.”
ACEN is eyeing a portfolio buildup of up to 20,000 megawatts by 2030, and mostly, its strategy lean on acquiring assets, rather than going through all the grueling process of developing RE projects from scratch.
Tim Rosenzweig, CEO and co-founder of PivotGen, emphasized that their company is looking forward “to successfully repowering the portfolio so that these projects can continue to deliver clean, renewable power and provide jobs and economic opportunity in local communities.”
He added “this sale will be subject to regulatory approvals including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),” which is the main regulatory agency of the American energy market.
The other offshore markets of the Ayala energy company are those in Australia, India and Vietnam; and parallel RE developments are also pursued aggressively in the Philippine power industry.
