ACEN expects to soon reach 5,000-MW RE goal

AYALA-LED ACEN Corp. may soon reach its renewables capacity target of 5,000 megawatts (MW) as ongoing projects reach completion, its top official said.

“We have a high degree of confidence because we’re already at close to 4,500 [MW]. That doesn’t include yet the wind project that we won in the green energy auction — that’s scalable to more than 300 MW,” ACEN President and Chief Executive Officer Eric T. Francia said on the sidelines of the BusinessWorld Economic Forum on Wednesday.

Mr. Francia said the new capacity excludes the 335-MW onshore wind power project located in Laguna and Quezon provinces. Based on the data from the Department of Energy (DoE), the company has an offered capacity of 230 MW for P5.79 per kilowatt-hour.

The company won the bid through its unit Giga Ace 6, Inc., which was awarded recently under the DoE’s second green energy auction.

The government’s green energy auction program is a competitive process of procuring RE supply by offering capacities to qualified bidders at a set maximum price.

“So it’s around the corner, getting to the 5,000-megawatt mark,” Mr. Francia said. “I cannot say if it’s end of the year, early next year but somewhere in that neighborhood.”

Currently, ACEN has approximately 4,200 MW of attributable capacity spanning the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia.

At the local bourse on Wednesday, shares in ACEN rose by seven centavos or 1.43% to close at P4.97 apiece. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera