PetroSolar’s Tarlac facility now supplies power to Luzon

MANILA, Philippines – The 50-megawatt (MW) Tarlac solar facility jointly owned by PetroGreen Energy Corp. (PGEC) and EEI Power Corp. is now a step closer to receive incentives under the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme as it started commissioning tests and delivering power to the Luzon grid.

The solar facility was synchronized to the Luzon grid and started delivery of power at 4:10 p.m. on Jan. 27, as part of its ongoing commissioning tests, the firm said.

“PetroSolar’s 50-MW Tarlac solar farm is the largest single solar power facility completed in the country to date. The Department of Energy (DOE) validated completion of 80 percent of our solar farm’s electro-mechanical components and 100 percent of our interconnection facilities last Dec. 23, 2015 and issued our nomination for FIT eligibility on Jan. 19, 2016,” PetroSolar president Milagros V. Reyes said.

“We shall notify the DOE and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to validate the results of our grid synchronization and commissioning tests which we intend to complete in a few days,” she added.

Once cleared by the DOE and the ERC, the facility will be able to receive incentives under the FIT scheme, particularly the FIT rate of P8.69 per kilowatt-hour (kwh).

“Although we were a late entrant to solar energy development, having signed our supply and construction contracts only in mid-June 2015, our completion of the project of this scale in such timeline owes not only to the tight collaboration between our team and sub-contractors but also to the professional cooperation we have received from agencies such as DOE, DENR, NGCP, PEMC, and PEZA,” PGEC vice president and COO F.G. Delfin Jr. said.

“As important, given that only about 132 MW of solar projects out of the 500 MW allocation have been awarded the P8.69/kwh solar FIT rate, our milestone today once validated by DOE and ERC gives PetroSolar a very high chance of securing our 50 MW FIT allocation,” he added.

The energy facility covers 55 hectares of industrial land within the PEZA-registered Central Technopark in Tarlac City.

It is 56-percent owned by PetroSolar Corp., a joint venture firm of PGEC, and 44-percent owned by EEI Power.

PGEC, in turn, is the renewable energy subsidiary of publicly-listed PetroEnergy Resources Corp.

PetroSolar received the service contract for the Tarlac solar project on March 19, 2015 and secured its declaration of commerciality on Sept. 24 the same year.

The firm engaged Syntegra Solar as engineer, German firm Conergy for the solar farm design, supply and delivery of solar panels and related equipment.

It also tapped local companies Media Construction for initial site civil works, Phesco Inc. for construction and Philcantech Enterprises for the substation and transmission lines.