THE Arayat-Mexico solar farm, a joint venture between Citicore Power, Inc. and AC Energy Corp. (ACEN), is preparing to add more capacity to the grid to meet the anticipated increase in energy demand during the summer season.
The 72-megawatt (MW) Arayat-Mexico solar farm “reached its full capacity last March 23, 2022 and is expected to add much needed capacity to the grid in time for the demand surge during the hot summer season,” Citicore said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.
The company noted that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines will conduct its own grid compliance testing, which is expected to be completed by the second week of April.
“As we prepare to infuse this new asset into CREIT (Citicore Energy REIT Corp.) to grow its renewable energy asset portfolio in the coming months, our construction team is ready to break ground [for] 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,” Citicore Chief Executive Officer Oliver Y. Tan said.
“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,” he added.
The solar plant will be managed and operated in-house by the Citicore Property Managers, Inc.
According to Mr. Tan, the group has eight solar farms and one micro-grid solar rooftops under its management.
The Arayat-Mexico solar farm, once fully operational, is expected to produce “105 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy annually, enough to power 45,000 households while avoiding approximately 72,000 MT (metric tons) of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions annually,” the company said. — Arjay L. Balinbin
