The power supply for Luzon grid during the summer months will be reinforced as the joint venture of Ayala-led ACEN Corporation and Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation already started injecting the capacity of their 72-megawatt Arayat-Mexico solar farm venture in Pampanga province.

The project sponsors indicated that the generating plant had reached full capacity on March 23 this year. The new capacity is a valuable addition to the country's biggest power grid which is being confronted with tight supply condition during the summer months and the May 9 national and local elections.

According to Citicore CEO Oliver Tan, their stake in the Arayat-Mexico solar farm project will eventually be infused in their listed firm Citicore Energy REIT Corporation (CREIT), but the next immediate major milestone they have been working on is the plant’s capacity expansion to 116MW.

“As we prepare to infuse this new asset into CREIT to grow its renewable energy asset portfolio in the coming months, our construction team is ready to break ground the Phase 2 by next month which will increase the total plant capacity to 116 MW upon completion hopefully before the end of the year,” Tan reiterated.

Following the successful energization of the initial phase of the Arayat-Mexico solar farm, Citicore noted that transmission firm National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) “will be conducting its own set of testing for grid compliance, which is expected to be completed by the second week of April.”

At its full commercial operation phase, the plant will have aggregate generation of 105 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of renewable energy annually which would then be able to power 45,000 households.

Tan vouched that “the on-time energization of this project further demonstrated Citicore’s solid track record in greenfield development to engineering, procurement and construction to plant operations and maintenance, a vertically integrated business model like no other.”

Jose Maria Zabaleta, chief development officer of ACEN, emphasized that the solar facility will be managed and operated in-house by our Citicore Property Managers, Inc.

“The Arayat-Mexico solar farm is yet another example of how partners leveraging on their collective expertise, experience and determination can deliver a high-quality project safely and on time,” he stressed.

As estimated, the equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions displacement from the Arayat-Mexico solar farm installation will hover at 72,000 metric tons annually.