Japan’s JERA sees partnership with AboitizPower as long-term

Richmond Mercurio – June 22, 2023 | 12:00am
from The Philippine Star

TOKYO – JERA Co. Inc., Japan’s largest power generation firm, said the company’s   partnership with Aboitiz Power Corp. is for the long haul as the company embarks on a mission to support the Philippines’ move toward  decarbonization, while providing stable and affordable power.

In a media briefing, JERA senior managing executive officer and AboitizPower non-executive director Satoshi Yajima said  JERA sees its partnership in AboitizPower as a long-term investment.

“The current relation between Aboitiz and JERA is working very well,” Yajima said.

“This is not a short-term investment. This is long-term investment,” he said.

JERA has been a strategic partner of AboitizPower since 2021, when the Japanese firm acquired a 27-percent stake in the company for $1.46 billion.

JERA operates in more than 10 countries with a total portfolio of 80 gigawatts achieved through its expertise in renewable energy and zero-emission thermal power generation using ammonia and hydrogen.

“The reason why JERA invested this money to Aboitiz is for the betterment of the Philippine society and economy,” Yajima said.

“This is a kind of destiny that the two work together. This is both companies’ mission to provide stable power supply, affordable power supply and reducing carbon. These (are the) three missions that we need to achieve together between Aboitiz and JERA,” he said.

AboitizPower and JERA have earlier identified potential areas for collaboration across multiple fronts, including joint development of liquefied natural gas (LNG)-to-power projects, the fuel sourcing and management of LNG, potential participation in aspects of plant operation and management, and exploration of the use of new generation technologies.

“We are having several initiatives between JERA and Aboitiz to increase the corporate value of AboitizPower by combining our strengths and Aboitiz’s strengths,” JERA executive officer and head of the Asia platform business group Shinsuke Nakayama said.

Among these initiatives is in the operations and maintenance (O&M) of AboitizPower’s power plants in the country.

“In case of O&M, we exchange our engineers between Japan and Philippines which will enhance the capacity building of both side,” Nakayama said.

“We are trying to share our latest initiative and technology to improve operation and maintenance in our domestic power plants and share those experience and technologies with Aboitiz so that there will be synergy between two companies,” he said.

AboitizPower is looking to spend P190 billion within this decade for an additional 3,700 megawatts (MW) of clean energy capacities.

The company has over 1,000 MW of disclosed and ongoing renewable projects, which include solar, floating solar, hydro and onshore wind.