PetroWind Energy Inc. signed a renewable energy payment agreement with National Transmission Corp. for the 36-megawatt Nabas-1 wind power facility in Nabas, Aklan.
The agreement allows Nabas-1 wind project to receive the feed-in tariff payment of P7.40 per kilowatt-hour from TransCo, which manages the feed-in tariff allowance fund.
The payment agreement took effect on Dec. 22, following a notice from TransCo, which uses the fund to pay renewable energy developers.
“With this development, PetroWind’s Nabas-1 wind power plant will receive offtake payment at the ERC-approved feed-in-tariff rate of P7.40 per kilowatt-hour starting next billing period,” PetroEnergy Resources Corp. said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
PetroWind is a joint venture of Singapore-based CapAsia Asean Wind Holdings Cooperatief UA (with 40 percent), EEI Power Corp. (20 percent), and PetroGreen Energy Corp. (40 percent). PetroGreen is a 90-percent-owned subsidiary of publicly-listed PetroEnergy.
“At the same time, for power exported to the Visayas grid starting last June 10, Nabas-1’s commercial operations date, which were initially settled at prevailing WESM [Wholesale Electricity Spot Market] prices lower than P7.40 per kWh, PetroWind also expects to receive incremental refunds,” it said.
The P4.5 billion Nabas-1 project, the biggest renewable and clean energy facility to date in Panay, is the first wind power venture of PetroWind.
PetroWind and TransCo signed the Nabas-1 payment agreement on Aug. 26, 2015 but it was declared effective Dec. 22 following the latter’s review of PetroWind’s documentary submissions, including the Energy Regulatory Commission-approved certificate of compliance-FIT or COC-FIT.
The Nabas-1 COC-FIT was dated Dec. 1, 2015 but was released by the ERC on Dec. 11, vesting the project with a guaranteed offtake payment of P7.40 per kWh from June 10, 2015 to June 9, 2035.
The Nabas facility, consisting of 18 wind turbine generators made by Spanish firm Gamesa Eolica S.L. Unipersonal, started providing clean power to the Visayas grid on March 24, 2015
from 8 WTGs at the start of its commissioning tests. Testing of the remaining 10 WTGs were completed on June 9.
Each turbine, 78 meters in height, has a capacity of 2 megawatts and located on a mountainous area in Nabas and Malay towns.
“Since March 24, PWEI has contributed over 15,000 MWh of electricity to the Visayas grid, making Aklan province the center of clean and renewable energy generation in Panay island. As important, this ERC approval formalizes PWEI’s and our parent company’s status as a power generation entity. PWEI looks forward to higher production of clean and renewable energy from Nabas as we enter the high wind season this third quarter of 2015,” PetroWind executive vice president for operations Francisco Delfin Jr. said earlier.
