PILILLA, Rizal—A renewable-power company, chaired by former Energy Secretary Vincent Perez, is mulling over more investments in clean energy after it inaugurated on Wednesday its 54-megawatt (MW) wind farm here.
“I only do clean energy,” Perez said when asked of plans to expand the existing 54-MW wind farm of Alternergy Wind One Corp. [AWOC], a subsidiary of Alternergy Philippine Holdings Corp. (APHC).
“We are just awaiting guidance from the next administration,” referring to another wind-power project nearby. “We just wait for the next administration for the FiT [Feed-in Tariff] guidelines whether it will be bidding or another FiT 3,” Perez said.
Alternegy Wind Sembrano Corp., another subsidiary of APHC, is developing a 72-MW wind farm adjacent to the AWOC’s 54-MW wind-power facility.
Perez said the Sembrano wind project could take in the group of Lucio Tan as partner.
“We are in talks with them, yes. They own some land there, but they haven’t finalized it yet,” he said.
AWOC’s 54-MW wind farm is the first wind farm in Luzon outside of the Ilocos region.
The 27 wind towers installed along the ridge of the mountainous Rizal province can supply the requirements of 66,000 households in the province. Each tower, supplied by Gamesa of Pamplona, Spain, generates 2 MW of wind power and measures 125 meters tall, equivalent to a 33-story building.
The Pililla, Rizal, wind farm was completed in June 2015, without any grid constraint or congestion in Metro Manila, the main power load in Luzon, via a 10-kilometer transmission line to Manila Electric Co.’s distribution network.
The Pililla, Rizal wind farm costs $145 million. The company was able to secure a loan from BDO, China Bank and Rizal Commercial and Banking Corp.
Also, the Pililla wind farm recently secured the certificate of compliance under the FiT scheme, allowing the project to receive a fixed rate, subject to adjustments, for 20 years.
“We absolutely don’t have any transmission constraints here because we are close to the grid. We want to be able to sell electricity and not generate undistributed energy,” Perez said.