AC Energy keen on ditching coal assets before 2030–exec

By Samuel P. Medenilla November 23, 2020
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/11/23/ac-energy-keen-on-ditching-coal-assets-before-2030-exec/

AC Energy Inc.’s exit from coal could happen ahead of its 2030 target, a company official said.

“Our commitment is to divest all our coal assets by 2030, but I don’t think we will wait by 2030,” said AC Energy President Eric Francia during an online press briefing last week.

Francia did not say when but the company is already investing heavily in renewable energy (RE).

Its current portfolio is composed of 1,300megawatts (MW) of thermal energy. The company has started divesting its coal assets since last year.

The power unit of conglomerate Ayala Corp. earlier agreed to transfer its assets in the 552-megawatt GNPower Kauswagan’s (GNPK) coal-fired power project to its partner, Power Partners Ltd. Co.

It also completed the sale of a 49-percent voting interest and 60-percent economic interest in AA Thermal Inc.—which owns a plant in Bataan—to Aboitiz Power Corp.

“GN Kauswagan is expected to reach financial close by first quarter of 2021. The balance of AA Thermal, we will be looking at the next couple of years. We want to complete the units first,” he said.

For GN Power Dinginin, Francis said unit 1 is targeted for commercial operations next year between March and April. Soon after that, unit 2 will be commercially available.

“We would like to make sure that the plant is operating well and then revisit potential divestment plan later,” added Francia.

Last week, Francia said AC Energy Philippines Inc. (ACEN) could exceed its 2025 target of achieving 5,000megawatts of renewable capacity.

“The plan is to scale up our RE to 5,000MW or even more. We are feeling confident that we will exceed our RE target. Next year, we expect our RE to reach 2,500MW. So, we expect to be halfway through our 2025 target as early as 2021,” said Francia.

He said there are 1,500MW of RE projects lined up next year in the Philippines, Australia, India and Vietnam.

ACEN, which has 1,000MW of capacity in its portfolio, will integrate its international business, which currently has 900MW RE capacity.

“Once we infuse our international platform into ACEN next year, ACEN will have a total of 1,900MW,” he said. Of which, Francia said RE capacity is about 1,350MW.

ACEN aspires to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with the goal of reaching 5,000 MW of renewables capacity by 2025.