Ayala seeks expansion of Pagudpud wind farm
by Alena Mae S. Flores – April 23, 2017 at 07:01 pm
from Manila Standard Today
PAGUDPUD, Ilocos Norte—AC Energy Holdings Inc. plans to expand the 81-megawatt wind farm it operates in Caparispisan, Pagudpud under unit North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp. by 69 MW, a top executive said over the weekend.
AC Energy, the energy arm of Ayala Corp., owns 36 percent of North Luzon Renewable, the owner and operator of the country’s second biggest wind farm.
The company has submitted an application to the Energy Department to expand the capacity of the Caparispisan wind project to 150 MW.
“The expansion will have to still depend on several factors. One is the pre-development, the permitting, including service contract. We’ve already applied and we are still waiting,” AC Energy president John Eric Francia told reporters.
Francia said the company was preparing the project in time for the implementation of the renewable energy portfolio standards, or RPS, which require companies to secure a certain percentage of their respective annual energy demand from renewable energy resources.
“We are working on that so we will be on push button mode already by the time RPS becomes a reality,” he said.
DGA NLREC, a wholly-owned unit of Mitsubishi Corp., owns 28 percent of the Caparispisan wind project, while the Philippine Investment Alliance for Infrastructure, or Pinai, composed of the Government Service Insurance System, APG and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd., holds 32 percent.
UPC Philippines Wind Holdco I B.V. owns the remaining 4 percent.
Francia said the company was open to teaming up with UPC on a new project also in Ilocos Norte, which has a potential to generate 150 MW to 200 MW of power.
He said Ayala has no stake in the planned UPC wind project but “we will talk.”
“If that expansion happens or before it happens, we undertake to discuss it with UPC,” the official said.
Francia said AC Energy was also planning to build a less than five-megawatt solar project in Bangui, Ilocos Norte. AC Energy has a majority stake in the 52-MW Bangui wind farm of MorthWind Power Development Corp.
“I believe we have the service contract in Bangui. We have the land and service contract, I think that’s basically what we have and of course the transmission line we have, but beyond that we haven’t done much advanced pre-development works but that’s fairly quick if solar,” he said.
AC Energy’s power generation portfolio includes wind, solar, coal and geothermal. The company plans to reach build up 2,000 MW of attributable generating capacity by 2020 and a net income of P5 billion during the same period.
