PetroSolar gets ERC OK for FIT eligibility

MANILA, Philippines - PetroSolar Corp. has clinched regulatory approval for a guaranteed payment for its 50-megawatt (MW) solar power plant, adding to a list of assured revenue streams for the company.

The company said it was granted the certificate of compliance as a feed-in-tariff (COC-FIT) eligible power plant by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for its 50-MW solar farm.

PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC) president Milagros V. Reyes said in a statement the COC-FIT is a testament to PetroSolar’s “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 8.69 per kilowatt-hour (kwh),” she said.

PetroSolar is partly-owned by publicly-listed PERC, through its subsidiary, PetroGreen Energy Corp. (PGEC) with 56 percent, and EEI Power Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly-listed EEI Corp., with 44 percent.

Reyes said the FIT payment will be an addition to PERC’s sources of revenues, which are mostly renewable energy projects.

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

Apart from the company’s bottom line, PGEC vice president and COO Francisco Delfin Jr. said the COC-FIT also ensure royalty payments to host communities.

“This COC-FIT release effectively supersedes the PAO-FIT and confirms and extends 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,” he said. 

PERC will continue to explore other renewable energy developments as it moves away from oil production, Reyes said.