PetroWind Energy Inc. (PWEI) said Friday it started exporting power from its 13.2-megawatt Nabas phase-2 expansion in Aklan province on April 4, 2024, after getting the nod of the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) and National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
The project commissioning provides additional supply to Panay amid the anticipated increase in demand during the dry months.
“We are pleased with the start of the commissioning of the Nabas wind power project phase 2 as it delivers much needed power to the Panay sub-grid. This is the newest power station added to the system since the January 2, 2024, grid blackout and we congratulate PWEI for this milestone,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla.
“This commissioning testifies to the efforts of our private sector partners, working with the administration, to boost the country’s clean and renewable energy capacity in sustaining long-term economic growth particularly in northern Panay and Boracay,” said Lotilla.
The commissioning followed the approval on April 3 by IEMOP and on April 4 by NGCP of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) registration of the project as a generation facility and its energization for power injection, respectively.
PWEI exported power from the first three 2.2-MW Vestas wind-turbine generators.
“We anticipate that this commissioning will eventually lead to the successful commercial operation of our Phase 2 expansion as the second wind power unit of PWEI and the sixth RE generating plant of PetroGreen Energy Corp. In supplying much needed electricity to Panay communities, we also look forward to the revenue stream from this investment,” PGEC president and chief executive Francisco Delfin Jr. said.
Delfin welcomed the support of the Department of Energy and its attached agencies, NGCP, IEMOP, Energy Regulatory Commission and the Development Bank of the Philippines to the project.
DBP provided a P1.8-billion loan to PWEI in February 2023 to partially fund the development and construction of the Nabas wind 2 project.
PGEC and publicly-listed PetroEnergy Resources Corporation, both part of the Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC), own a combined 60-percent equity interest in PWEI, while BCPG Wind Cooperatief U.A., a subsidiary of Thailand’s BCPG Public Company Ltd., owns 40 percent.
