Citicore Renewable allots P70B for power projects

BY LENIE LECTURA – FEBRUARY 22, 2022
from Business Mirror

Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC), the renewable energy arm of Citicore Power Inc., is earmarking P70 billion for the expansion of its power generation portfolio to 1,500 megawatts (MW) in five years.

“The 1,500 megawatts would probably (cost) P70 billion,” said Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT) Chief Executive Officer Oliver Tan during an online news briefing.

CREIT is the country’s first real estate investment trust (REIT) listing focused on renewable energy (RE).

Tan said “around 15 plants,” at an average of 100MW per plant, could be put up in Luzon. “Based on timeline, 1,500 will be completed in five years, maybe earlier depending on rollout,” he said, adding that 630 megawatts (MW) are already in various development stages which should come online in the next two to three years.

Financing for the planned P70-billion power projects would come from various funding sources, including the proceeds from the CREIT listing.

“We can also borrow from mixed local banks to bankroll construction which later on will be folded into CREIT and maybe a combination of preferred shares offering from the sponsor,” he said.

Tan said the planned projects would be infused into CREIT, which CREC sponsors. “The sponsor has 1,500 MW pipeline in the next five years. Falls in CREIT in batches. We are studying for first batch around 120 MW, as early as the first quarter.”

The largest in the pipeline is a solar farm in Arayat in Mexico, Pampanga. This is a 50-50 percent venture with AC Energy Corp. (ACEN), with 72 MW in capacity for phase 1. Tan said this will be commissioned either by the end of this month or early next month.

Phase 2 of the same project, which is 40MW in capacity, will be switched on before the end of the year.

Other projects, he said, are still in the preliminary engineering stages. “We already constructed access road, complete within three years. The rest, basically we’re doing land due diligence, both legal and technical.”

CREC is also keen on participating in various power programs introduced by the Department of Energy. These include the Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) of the agency.

“We are actually excited for GEAP. For the initial round of 2,000MW, 1,000MW are solar. There are eight plants, five are non-FIT (feed-in-tariff) plants. We can include that in the GEAP, plus our other projects that are under development,” Tan said.

It is also looking at the possibility of joining the competitive auction for the 850MW requirement of the Manila Electric Co. “We are studying the TOR [terms of reference] of the 850MW. We believe there will be five more coming out, so we’re looking into it.”