ACEN Corp. announced Tuesday the launch of its Just Energy Transition (JET) Roadmap for the 246-megawatt South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (SLTEC) coal-fired power plant in Batangas province at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai.
ACEN said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange the initiative builds on the momentum generated by the company’s Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM), the world’s first and only commercial-based transaction to successfully program the early retirement of a coal-fired power plant.
“While the planned coal to clean transition for SLTEC is scheduled more than a decade from now, it is never too early to develop a long-term roadmap. This will ensure that the transition is carried out in a just, thorough and proactive manner,” ACEN chief executive Eric Francia said.
Francia said the company has set six priority areas for the JET implementation, including clean energy replacement; power plant decommissioning; asset repurposing; community transition; worker reskilling and redeployment; and cascading learnings and continuous improvement.
ACEN’s JET Roadmap is being developed in partnership with the Coal Asset Transition Accelerator (CATA)—a global platform empowering coal asset owners, alongside government financiers and local stakeholders, to put in place financial mechanisms that will support the acceleration of the transition away from coal in a just and inclusive way.
CATA’s core partners are Climate Smart Ventures (CSV), Carbon Trust, and Rocky Mountain Institute, and is supported by the European Climate Foundation, Growald Climate Fund and IKEA Foundation.
“With the launch of its Just Energy Transition Roadmap, ACEN has yet again produced a ‘world’s first’ by being the first private power company in Asia to clearly articulate its plans for holistically addressing the future of a coal-fired power plant set for early decommissioning,” Climate Smart Ventures managing partner Lawrence Ang said.
“CSV, and our partners at CATA, are proud to partner with ACEN to champion innovative models for repurposing coal fired power assets and delivering replacement clean energy suited for challenging grid situations common in emerging markets, while ensuring programs are put in place for meaningfully transitioning workers and communities through redeployment, reskilling and upskilling,” he said.
Growald Climate Fund chief executive Joanna Messing underscored the potential of the roadmap to be a replicable model for other asset owners seeking to transition their coal assets.
“ACEN’s Just Energy Transition (JET) Roadmap aligns with Growald Climate Fund’s longstanding commitment to creating pathways for asset owners to transition away from coal in a manner that prioritizes the welfare of their host communities,” Messing said.
She said including communities in the shift from coal to clean energy is crucial for building trust and garnering support from stakeholders, allowing the transition to generate more momentum going forward.
“In the same manner that the ACEN ETM has set the standard for commercial-based coal retirement transactions, the ACEN JET Roadmap has the potential to be a model that asset owners can replicate and from which policymakers can derive valuable insights,” Messing said.