Aboitiz Power Corp. will explore the possibility of investing in wind projects in countries where its new partner, JERA Asia Pte Ltd.—Japan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) giant—is already present.
JERA is investing $1.58 billion in AboitizPower in exchange for a 27-percent stake in the power firm. They are expected to explore collaboration in many power projects in line with AboitizPower’s goal of achieving a 50:50 clean energy and thermal capacity mix by 2030. Aboitiz Power is earmarking P190 billion in the next 10 years to build an additional 3,700 megawatts to achieve the goal.
“Certainly, offshore wind is in our eyesight, with certain areas for possible development in the Philippines. But we’re also not just limiting ourselves to JERA as a partner in this field. We have a number of developers also asking, or looking at Aboitiz to co-develop.
But yes, it opens up more opportunities for AboitizPower to explore offshore wind with JERA, especially in countries where they are actually operating at the moment,” said AboitizPower President Emmanuel V. Rubio during an online news briefing about JERA’s investment in Aboitiz Group.
JERA, a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc., intends to eliminate CO2 emissions from its domestic and overseas businesses by 2050.
The company’s goal, Rubio said, is in line with AboitizPower’s plans to deliver more renewable energy in its portfolio. “What I’m really looking forward to is the technology. JERA is exploring, as regards to eliminating CO2 emissions, blue or green hydrogen, with hydrogen touted as the fuel of the future. It’s exciting for AboitizPower to have access to this technology.”
Apart from wind and hydrogen power, AboitizPower is also exploring synergies with JERA in the LNG business. The power firm earlier revealed plans to participate in the next competitive bidding of the power requirements of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), offering LNG as the fuel source.
“We’re still in the very early stages of our LNG feasibility study. We’ve identified two sites as we have discussed in the past. We’re not there yet with the details but very excited with the potential of this joint venture and what we can actually tap as part of JERA’s expertise and experience, when being one of the largest LNG players.
What we’re looking at is for LNG to be our option in the 2030 CSP [Competitive Selection Process] delivery. The LNG will be the option for the next CSP, which should be delivered by 2030. So, it’s still too early for any details,” said Rubio.
Upon completion of the transaction, JERA will own a 27-percent stake in AboitizPower while Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. will own a controlling stake of 52 percent. Rubio said there will be no change in management resulting from this partnership.