ACEN board clears investment in 335-MW onshore wind farm project

ACEN Corp.'s board has given the green light for the Ayala-led company to invest in a 335-megawatt (MW) onshore wind power project after its subsidiary won in a government auction for renewable energy (RE) capacity.

In a stock exchange disclosure on Tuesday, the company said its unit Giga Ace 6, Inc. had been recently awarded for its successful bid for the second round of the Department of Energy's green energy auction (GEA-2).

ACEN said its board on Sept. 4 approved the company's procurement of a performance bond for the benefit of its subsidiary 'to enable the latter's compliance with the requirements of GEA-2.'

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 or ceiling price.

Based on the Energy department's list of winning bidders, Giga Ace won the bid for its Isla wind power project located in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon with an offered capacity of 230 MW for P5.79 per kilowatt-hour.

The wind project's operation is set to start on Dec. 24, 2026.

ACEN did not disclose more details on the amount of investment and timeline of the operations.

Under GEA-2, which was conducted on July 3, successful bids reached an equivalent of 3,440 MW, or below the 11,600-MW offered capacity.

Earlier, ACEN said that it expects to ramp up its RE expansion after raising P25 billion from a perpetual preferred share offering under the first tranche of its shelf registration of up to 50 million preferred shares.

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

The energy company aspires to become the largest listed RE platform in Southeast Asia with a target portfolio of 20 gigawatts by 2030.

The existing capacity attributable to the company has a renewable share of 98%, the company said, claiming the figure to be among the highest in the region.

At the stock exchange on Tuesday, shares in ACEN slipped by four centavos or 0.78% to close at P5.06 apiece.