Ayala Complete Indonesian Wind Project

PT UPC Sidrap Bayu Energi, a special purpose company led by the energy unit of Ayala Corp., expects its $150-million, 75-megawatt wind project in Indonesia to start commercial operations in the first quarter of 2018.

AC Energy Holdings Inc. said in a statement the wind project was “nearing 70-percent completion.” The group “has started the installation of 30 Gamesa G114 2.5-MW wind turbine generators since August.”

Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan, together with local government officials of South Sulawesi and high-ranking officials of the State Electricity Company in the Sulawesi region, visited the site recently.

AC Energy said the visit “demonstrated the government’s support to the ongoing construction of the country’s first commercial wind farm.”

AC Energy earlier signed investment agreements with UPC Renewables Indonesia Ltd. for the development of the 75-MW wind farm in Sidrap, South Sulawesi.

The Sidrap project is the first greenfield offshore investment of AC Energy Holdings Inc. through affiliate AC Energy International Holdings Pte Ltd., a Singapore private limited company.

AC Energy has been expanding its footprint in Southeast Asia.

AC Energy is expanding beyond the Philippines and expected to grow its presence in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets.

Apart from the 75-MW wind farm, the Ayala energy arm also has a 20-percent stake in Star Energy (Salak-Darajat) B.V., which acquired Chevron’s geothermal operations in Indonesia.

The acquisition was a major milestone for the company as it plans to scale up renewable energy portfolio to 1,000 MW by 2020.

AC Energy is one of the fastest growing businesses of Ayala Corp. with more than $1 billion of invested and committed capital in renewable energy and conventional power.

AC Energy said it was positioned to exceed 2,000 MW of attributable generation capacity and scale up its renewable energy portfolio to over 1,000 MW by 2020.

The company also started early development works for its possible investment in solar and wind projects in Vietnam.

“We’re doing a lot of early development works in Vietnam for solar and wind. Because there is a feed-in-tariff for solar and wind in Vietnam. We’re also open to conventional. The government is going to equitization, privatization process, so we’re looking at that. but nothing is imminent yet,” AC Energy president John Eric Francia said earlier.

Francia said the company was in talks with potential partners, specifically local firms in Vietnam.