Ayala trims ownership in Luzon Wind Energy

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala Corp. has sold a portion of its stake in the company that owns an 81-megawatt wind farm in Ilocos Norte.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Ayala said it sold its stake in Luzon Wind Energy Holdings to a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp., effectively trimming its interest in the wind farm project to 36 percent.

“Luzon Wind owns part of Ayala Corp.’s stake in North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp. (NLREC) being held by its wholly-owned subsidiary AC Energy Holdings Inc.,” Ayala said.

Ayala said AC Energy still remains the largest owner of NLREC, which owns and operates an 81 MW wind farm in Barangay Caparispisan, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.

Ayala and Mitsubishi Corp. have been partners since 1974 when they signed an agreement to jointly explore investment opportunities in the Philippines.

In the past three years,
Ayala has committed over $700 million in equity to build much needed base load capacity and to develop renewable energy sources.

The group is targeting to put up 1,000 MW in capacity in the next few years.

The sale comes even as the 81 MW project received its feed-in-tariff (FIT) eligibility certificate from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) last April.

 FIT is a set of incentives given to renewable energy players.

Under the FIT system, renewable energy companies are entitled to the following FIT rates: P9.68 per kwh for solar power, P8.53 per kwh for wind and P5.90 per kwh for run-of-river hydroelectric power.

The FIT rate covers the period Nov. 11, 2014 to Nov. 10, 2034 for North Luzon Renewables’ 81 MW.

Aside from the 81 MW project, AC Energy also has another wind farm project, the 19-MW wind farm expansion in Bangui under Northwind Power Development Corp.

AC Energy reported a net income of P198 million in the first half, driven by contributions from its two wind farms and two coal plants – South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. in Batangas, and GNPower Mariveles coal plant in Bataan.

So far, the company has assembled over 700 MW of attributable generating capacity across various assets. It continues to work on a pipeline of power projects to meet its goal of building around 1,000 MW in generating capacity over the next few years.