New owner seeks supply deals for Digos solar plant

By Myrna M. Velasco – April 26, 2018, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

As the facility had been dislodged of feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentives in the second wave of development race, the new majority owner of the 28.6-megawatt Digos solar power plant is now working double time in cornering power supply agreements (PSAs) for the plant’s capacity.

Alterpower Specialist, Inc. had just secured last week the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) on its acquisition of the Digos plant shareholdings from Enfinity Philippines Renewable Resources Fourth, Inc.

Prior to the merger and acquisition deal, Enfinity was already a Filipino-owned company headed by businessman Alberto Espiritu, acquired from original European owners led by Gino van Neer.

For the Digos plant, the transaction had already been sealed between the Filipinized Enfintiy Group and Alterpower Specialist, an affiliate firm of Clean Renewable Energy Solutions Philippines, Inc. (CRESPHIL) of Jose Silvestre M. Natividad, the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Natividad said he is now “in discussion with five power utilities” in Mindanao grid for the capacity off-take (bilateral contracts) of the Digos plant.

He is also seeing further opportunity of expansion for the facility once the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) policy institutionalized by the Department of Energy (DOE) will formally commence around 2020.

The Digos plant is strategically sited in Davao del Sur in Mindanao, wherein not too many renewable energy (RE) plants have been constructed yet – that in turn could have become part of the RPS program.

The solar project officially kicked off commercial operations in 2016, following construction completion by its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor Sterling and Wilson, complemented by a sub-contract deal with Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corporation (MIESCOR), its local contractor.