ACEN extends additional P1 billion financing to Quezon North Wind

MANILA, Philippines —  ACEN Corp. of the Zobel family has added up to P1 billion in financing for its subsidiary developing the massive Quezon North Wind Power Project.

In a regulatory filing yesterday, ACEN said it had entered into another short-term loan agreement with Giga Ace 6 Inc., the company behind the wind project straddling the municipalities of Real and Mauban in Quezon.

With a planned capacity of 344.5 megawatts (MW), Quezon North Wind marks the first phase of ACEN’s broader wind power development in the province, targeted for completion by 2027.

The company is also lining up a 208-MW second phase, which would bring the project’s combined capacity to around 553 MW.

Upon completion, Quezon North Wind is expected to generate about 1,730 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean power annually.

The latest financing follows the short-term loan of up to P3 billion that ACEN provided in May and another P900 million in October last year.

Quezon North Wind also earlier secured a P34.41-billion senior green term loan facility from Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO Unibank Inc. and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

The project forms part of ACEN’s nearly 1,000 MW of wind assets in operation and under construction in the Philippines, according to the latest company data.

Recently, ACEN completed the second and final phase of its maintenance and repair program for the 52-MW NorthWind project in Bangui Bay, Ilocos Norte, one of the pioneering wind farms in Southeast Asia.

As a result, the project is projected to generate an additional 769 GWh of renewable electricity over the next 10 years, enough to power 188,000 households and displace around 592,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

“NorthWind demonstrates how strategic investments can maximize the value of infrastructure that’s already connected to the grid, reduce unnecessary waste from premature decommissioning and continue delivering clean, reliable power to Filipino consumers,” said Miguel de Jesus, ACEN COO of Philippine operations.

In the first half, ACEN’s renewable energy projects in the Philippines delivered a 17-percent increase in power generation to 1,091 GWh, propelled by the restoration of its wind farms in Ilocos Norte.

The company reported an attributable net income of P3.9 billion during the six-month period, 411 percent higher than the P763 million earned a year ago.