ACEN Corp. said that its subsidiary, ENEX Energy Corp., is keen on developing a 1,100 megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in Batangas.
But ACEN emphasized it will not be involved in ENEX’s fund-raising activities as it commits to be a purely renewable energy company by 2025.
ENEX has a 50 percent economic interest in Batangas Clean Energy for the development of a natural gas-fired power plant with the other half held by Singapore-based firm, Gen X Energy which is owned by the American private equity firm Blackstone.
“We have a joint venture which is a 1,100 MW gas-fired plant that’s under development in Batangas. That’s in very advanced stages of development and we believe it can participate in the upcoming competitive selection process (CSP) of Meralco for instance,” said Eric Francia, ENEX chairman, in a briefing last week.
“ENEX will have to source with its partner for the capital once the project gets to a financial close. We are not yet in financial closure. We would like the project to win a long-term contract. It is very risky to invest in a merchant, uncontracted gas power plant,” Francia, who is also president and chief executive officer of ACEN, said.
According to him, the gas-fired power plant would also need a contract with a reasonable pass-through mechanism given the volatility of fuel prices and that funding the project will be sourced from various sources.
“Nevertheless, we would like for the project to succeed. We will exert all efforts to make sure the project gets fully funded and that would be the role of ENEX to play. We have various options,” Francia said.
He also said the the country needs additional reliable baseload capacity supplied by gas-fired power plants because of the ongoing moratorium on new coal-fired power projects.
ACEN said the policy has affected the viability of financing those that were pursued before the moratorium took effect. The rising power demand can ideally be addressed by a combination of RE projects, energy storage and new gas-fired power plants.
ACEN has over 4,000 MW of capacity both operating and under construction as it targets to develop a total 20,000 MW of RE capacity by 2030.
Apart from the Philippines, ACEN has operations across the region, including Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Lao PDR and the United States.
