Listed Raslag Corp. said Tuesday it energized its third solar plant with a capacity of 18 megawatts this month after receiving an approval from National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
Raslag said in a statement the new solar plant, which went online for testing and commissioning, would provide additional revenues of about P215 million to the company in the first two years of operation.
The company’s third solar project reached its maximum capacity in July. It offered the facility’s available generation capacity to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market as a merchant plant.
“Raslag will capitalize on the uptrend of WESM prices thus far to push its financial figures higher than expected,” the company said.
The power plant is expected to generate 13.5 gigawatt-hours for the remaining months of 2022 and 27 GWh in 2023.
It can contribute around P71.6 million in 2022 and P142.9 million in 2023, assuming an average WESM settlement price of P5.30 per kilowatt-hour.
Raslag connected the third plant to the grid through NGCP’s 69 kilo-volt transmission asset, which serves as the interconnection point that bridges the generated electricity produced from the solar panels.
The newly completed solar plant doubles the company’s solar generating capacity to 41.198 MW.
Raslag’s two other plants—Raslag-1, with a capacity of 10.046 MW and Raslag-2 with 13.141 MW—both enjoy a feed-in tariff rate of P9.68 per kilowatt-hour and P8.69 per kWh, respectively.
The FIT rates have an annual escalation based on inflation and foreign exchange rates and are guaranteed for 20 years from commercial operations.
Raslag is developing its fourth solar plant with a capacity of 35.159 MW, which will be the company’s largest plant once completed.
It is in the advanced stages of land acquisition, permitting and development work and is expected to achieve commercial operations by March 2024.
The company, whose solar projects are all based in Pampanga, supports the call from the national government to increase the renewable share by 35 percent in the generation mix and to reduce harmful gas emissions by 75 percent by 2030.