First Gen, ecozone sister company FPIP ink landmark clean energy retail aggregation
First Gen, ecozone sister company FPIP ink landmark clean energy retail aggregation deal.
Lopez-led world-class economic zone developer First Philippines Industrial Park (FPIP) has joined government’s Retail Aggregation Program (RAP) by forging a landmark agreement with sister company First Gen Corporation, the Philippines’ leading renewable energy (RE) provider.
The agreement finalized on July 21 calls for First Gen, through subsidiary First Gen Energy Solutions (FGES), to supply 21 facilities of FPIP and its two subsidiaries inside the ecozone with electricity from RE power plants.
The deal marked the first time contestable customers inside an industrial park pooled their power needs and negotiated for electricity from an RE supplier under the RAP.
“We have a diversified renewable energy portfolio and increasing demand for RE from customers to meet their sustainability and decarbonization goals. What we want to do is to demonstrate that it is possible to provide stable and steady RE supply while securing cost-efficient energy,” said Francis Giles Puno, president of First Gen and FPIP.
The RAP is an initiative launched by the Energy Regulatory Commission in 2022 as part of the government’s Retail Competition and Open Access Program (RCOA), allowing an electricity user with a consumption of at least 500 kilowatts (kW) a month to choose a preferred power supplier and benefit from better services at potentially lower rates. The RAP mechanism expands RCOA’s scope by enabling multiple electricity consumers within a contiguous area to pool their power requirements to meet the 500-kW threshold and qualify to choose a preferred power supplier.
To qualify for the aggregation program, FPIP consolidated its own power requirements with those of subsidiaries FPIP Property Developers & Management Corporation and FPIP Utilities, Inc. These subsidiaries help FPIP manage facilities that provide support services, such as wastewater and sewage treatment, water distribution and industrial security, to more than 150 locators at FPIP’s 600-hectare ecozone.
FPIP then negotiated with FGES, a licensed retail electricity supplier, for electricity primarily from First Gen’s 132-megawatt Pantabangan-Masiway and 165-MW Casecnan hydroelectric power plants in Nueva Ecija. First Gen and FPIP reached the agreement in support of their shared mission as members of the Lopez Group of Companies of forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.
In support of the same mission, First Gen also has reached separate agreements with a number of FPIP locators for their supply of electricity from clean energy sources. These agreements were finalized under either RCOA or the Green Energy Option Program, another government initiative that allows eligible electricity consumers to pick RE as their source of electricity supply.
FPIP, a joint venture between Lopez-led conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH) and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, is home to global companies that include Collins Aerospace, Philippine Manufacturing Co. of Murata Inc., Dyson, Canon, Honda and Nestle.
First Gen, the holding company for FPH’s energy business, owns and operates through its own subsidiaries 28 power plants running on RE resources, such as geothermal, wind and solar, aside from hydro. These RE facilities have more than 1,600 MW of combined capacity.
To compensate for the intermittence of renewables, adjust to changes in electricity demand and support baseload requirements, First Gen, in partnership with Prime Infrastructure Capital, has four gas-fired with a total capacity of 2,017 MW. This diversified portfolio of renewable and low-carbon generating facilities helps keep the country’s power grid stable and bolsters energy security.
