Tarlac solar plant secures FIT rates

The Energy Regulatory Commission issued a certificate of compliance to PetroSolar Corp.’s 50 megawatt Tarlac-1 Solar Power Project, ensuring that it will enjoy feed-in-tariff rates for 20 years.

PetroSolar said in a statement the approval followed ERC’s grant of provisional authority to operate as a feed-in-tariff eligible power plant  on March 30.

The Tarlac-1 solar facility covers 55 hectares of industrial land within Central Technopark in Tarlac City. 

The project is the first solar plant of PetroSolar, a joint-venture firm 56 percent-owned by PetroGreen Energy Corp. and 44 percent-owned by EEI Power Corp.

PetroGreen is the renewable energy holding company of publicly-listed PetroEnergy Resources Corp.

“ERC’s COC-FIT approval for our Tarlac-1 solar facility testifies to our satisfactory compliance to all technical, organizational, legal and financial requirements to operate a solar power plant. As important, it guarantees FIT payments to PetroSolar from Feb. 10, 2016 to  Feb. 9, 2036 at the approved FIT rate of P8.69 per kilowatt-hour,”  PetroEnergy president Milagros Reyes said.

“Along with the FIT payments for our 36-MW Nabas wind facility and the long-term energy supply contract for our base-load 20MW Maibarara-1 geothermal power station and its on-going 12-MW expansion [Maibarara-2], these assured revenue streams boost PERC’s expansion from our Gabon oil production towards renewable energy development and power generation,” Reyes said.

She said the company should continue to assess new investment opportunities in the country’s renewable energy industry under the current leadership of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.

PetroGreen vice president and chief operating officer Francisco Delfin Jr. said the Tarlac-1 solar project attained 80-percent electro-mechanical completion on Dec. 23, 2015 and started delivering power to the Luzon grid on Jan. 27, 2016 ahead of the March 15, 2016 deadline for the 500-MW solar FIT allocation. 

“After the DOE granted our project the certificate of endorsement for FIT-eligibility last March 7, 2016, ERC approved PetroSolar’s PAO-FIT on March 30 officially making us qualified to receive FIT payments from Transco [National Transmission Corp.], through a renewable energy payment agreement that took effect on May 10, 2016,” he said.

Delfin said the certificate of compliance for feed-in-tariff extended the FIT payments for 20 years.

“Not only will this assure our lenders and investors but it also ensures PetroSolar’s remittance of the national wealth royalty and ER 1-94 payments for the benefit of our host communities as long as we are generating power,” PetroSolar said.