FPIP locators tap renewable energy through First Gen unit
Locators within the First Philippines Industrial Park (FPIP) under the Lopez Group have banded together to secure renewable energy (RE) via a supply deal with First Gen Corp.
Through subsidiary First Gen Energy Solutions, First Gen will supply renewable energy to 21 facilities of FPIP and its two subsidiaries inside the economic zone located in Santo Tomas town in Batangas.
According to the ecozone, this is the first time that customers inside an industrial park aggregated their power requirements and sealed an electricity deal with an RE supplier via the Retail Aggregation Program (RAP).
Electricity supply will be sourced primarily from First Gen’s 132-megawatt (MW) Pantabangan-Masiway and 165-MW Casecnan hydroelectric power plants in Nueva Ecija.
The agreement between First Gen and FPIP involves 1.27 megawatts (MW) of supply.
First Gen president and COO Francis Giles Puno said this seems modest, but the supply deal’s implications are far-reaching.
“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,” Puno said.
“This is the next generation of consumers that will fully embrace the power of choice: informed, empowered, and knowing the ‘captive supply’ only as a thing of the past—a distant point in our country’s energy history,” outgoing Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Monalisa Dimalanta said in her speech during the switching ceremony event held on Monday.
The government introduced the aggregation program, allowing electricity customers to choose their electricity providers and shift to clean energy sources.
It also lets multiple consumers within the same franchise area to pool their demand to reach the minimum threshold of 500 kilowatts and select their power supplier.
The RAP forms part of the Retail Competition and Open Access framework, one of the mechanisms provided under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to let customers choose their supplier.
FPIP joined this program by consolidating its power requirements with aggregation program with those of subsidiaries, FPIP Property Developers and Management Corp. and FPIP Utilities Inc.
“These entities 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,” it said.
FPIP is a joint venture of Lopez-led conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) and Japanese firm Sumitomo Corp.
It houses global companies such as Collins Aerospace, Philippine Manufacturing Co. of Murata Inc., Dyson, Canon, Honda and Nestle.
