ACEN Australia signs deal

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ACEN Corp. through its subsidiary, ACEN Australia, signed a power purchase agreement with Australia-based firm SmartestEnergy to offtake renewable electricity generated from the first stage of the New England Solar project in New South Wales.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, ACEN said under the eight-year agreement, SmartestEnergy will be provided with an offtake of 25 percent of the output of the 400 megawatts (MW) project.

New England Solar is ACEN Australia’s first operational project, with the 400 MW first stage built with the support of host landholders, First Nations people and the Uralla community.

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The project will have a capacity of 720 MW at full development and will be one of Australia’s largest solar projects participating in the National Electricity Market, providing clean renewable energy to power around 300,000 average Australian homes.

ACEN Australia said it is investing more than AUD200,000 to the New England region for decades to come within the Uralla and surrounding community through the New England Solar Social Investment Program and an additional AUD7 million in community funding over the next 25 years and beyond.

In a separate filing, ACEN reported a 43 percent decline in its net income for 2023 to P7.4 billion from P13.1 billion in 2022 that it attributed to the significant reduction in non-cash items from 2022.

ACEN said if the impact of non-cash items are taken out, its profitability increased 150 percent year over year, driven by a threefold growth in core operating earnings, with attributable earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization up by 31 percent to P18.8 billion in 2023 on growth in capacity across multiple markets from 2022’s P14.3 billion.

Eric Francia, ACEN president and chief executive officer, said the company remains committed to leading the energy transition with continued investments in renewables capacity expansion.

“We look forward to 2024 with full commercial operations of newly commissioned plants, a continually growing pipeline and in turn, continued progress toward our aspiration to achieve 20 gigawatts (GW) in attributable renewables capacity by 2030,” Francia said.

Jonathan Back, ACEN chief finance officer and chief strategy officer, said the company achieved a strong core operating performance and ramp-up of new capacity through “increased focus on execution, diverse sources of funding and array of strategic partnerships.”

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