Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. (SPNEC) signed a power supply agreement (PSA) with Angeles Electric Corp. (AEC) for approximately 97.8 megawatt hours per day from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 10 years.
AEC, the third largest distribution utility in Luzon, awarded the PSA as the result of a competitive selection process (CSP) in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program.
RPS mandates distribution utilities and electric cooperatives to allocate a portion of their supply from renewable sources.
“The contracting of the first phase of our solar farm shows that renewable energy in the Philippines is a supply-constrained market. This reinforces our drive to expand SPNEC’s capacity to meet the country’s great demand for renewable energy,” said Leandro Leviste, Solar Philippines founder.
Leviste said SPNEC bested four other bidders from the CSP which will provide the company with a base of contracted revenues while being able to sell the rest of its capacity to the spot market or other off-takers.
SPNEC said the supply deal comes as the company is finalizing plans for an asset-for-share swap with parent firm, Solar Philippines, which may enable the former to acquire over 20 solar project companies, including over 10 gigawatts of developments.
Apart from the Nueva Ecija project, other solar power plants being developed by Solar Philippines set to be operational this year include the 63 megawatts (MW) in Batangas in partnership with Korea Electric Power Corp.; one in Tarlac, being expanded to up to 200 MW in partnership with Prime Infra of the Razon Group; and two more in Batangas and Cavite with a combined capacity of 140 MW.
Based on data from the DOE, the total number of installed capacity from solar power projects in the country is already at 1,012 MW or 3.9 percent of the power mix. – Jed Macapagal
