ACEN Corp., the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, said Thursday it is looking at capital expenditures of P50 billion to P70 billion in 2023 to support its renewable energy expansion.
ACEN said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it has more than 2,400 megawatts of projects under construction to bring the company closer to achieving 20,000 megawatts in RE capacity by 2030.
This year’s projected capex is higher than the P50.6 billion the company spent in 2022 as it started construction of over 1,300 MW of new solar and wind farms in the Philippines, Australia and India.
New projects under construction include the 520-MW Stubbo Solar farm in Australia, the company’s second project in the country. With more than 1,000 MW in construction, Australia is ACEN’s largest market outside the Philippines.
“In 2022, the Philippine power sector weathered significant challenges caused by our country’s continued dependence on high-priced coal and unserved power demand, and as a result, we felt the impact of the high cost of power. With 700 MW in new capacity expected to come online in the Philippines by the end of the year and another 521 MW of new capacity commencing operations in Australia, we expect to move into a net-selling merchant position and be on a stronger footing in 2023,” said ACEN president and chief executive Eric Francia.
ACEN has about 4,000 MW of attributable renewables capacity in operation and under construction across the Philippines and the region.
ACEN’s consolidated net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company reached P13.1 billion in 2022, more than double the P5.25 billion it earned in 2021.
The profit included P8.6 billion of net impact in revaluation gains resulting from the company’s full acquisition of the Australia platform and provisions for a Supreme Court decision voiding the Philippine Electricity Market Corp.’s administered/regulated pricing regime in 2013 and for the Lac Hoa & Hoa Dong Wind project in Vietnam.
Consolidated income reached P14.597 billion, up from P7.666 billion in 2021 as consolidated revenues increased 35 percent to P35.2 billion, driven by full-year contributions from new Philippine merchant plants.
Total attributable output rose 7 percent to about 5,000 gigawatt-hours, owing to the company’s new international assets, which contributed over 2,500 GWh, up 30 percent from the previous year.
Full-year contributions from newly operational Vietnam wind farms and India solar farms drove the growth in generation.
ACEN completed the world’s first market-based energy transition mechanism for the 246-MW South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. coal plant In November 2022, raising P7.2 billion from the full divestment of SLTEC, which ACEN can use to fund further renewables expansion.