The Petro Energy Resources Corp. (PERC) said its affiliate, San Jose Green Energy Corp. (SJGEC), has signed an omnibus loan and security arrangement term loan facility worth P498 million with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
The amount will be utilized for the partial financing of the 19.6-megawatt (MW) San Jose solar power project in Nueva Ecija, the PERC said in a statement on Monday, June 16.
The local energy company said the SJGEC signed the loan agreement on June 10, with RCBC serving as lender; the RCBC Capital Corp. as the lead arranger; and the RCBC Trust Corp. as the facility agent and security trustee.
The San Jose solar project has reached the final stages of regulatory approval prior to commercial operations as it secured last April a final certificate of approval from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to connect to the country’s power grid, the PERC said.
The San Jose solar power project has been undergoing a battery of tests, and waiting for the grant of a Certificate of Compliance (COC) from the Energy Regulatory Commission, since it was inaugurated in Barangay Sto. Niño 3rd, San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, last April 24, the PERC said.
It has been designed to generate an average of 27 gigawatt hours of electricity annually and displace at least 18,900 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, the PERC said.
The SJGEC solar power project has been targeted for commercial operations by the third quarter of 2025.
The SJGEC is a subsidiary of the Rizal Green Energy Corp, which in turn is a joint venture between the Petro Green Energy Corp. (PGEC) and Japan’s TAISEI Corp. The PGEC is a subsidiary of PERC.
Upon issuance of the COC by the ERC, the San Jose solar project will be PGEC’s eighth utility-scale renewable energy facility and the third project financed by the RCBC after the 32-MW Maibarara geothermal plant in Batangas and the 27-MW Dagohoy solar plant in Bohol.
The PERC’s other power projects are the 70-MW Tarlac solar power project, and the 36-MW phase 1 of the Aklan wind power project with its 13.2-MW second phase.
The PERC, through its affiliate firm, Buhawind Energy Northern Luzon Corp., is also developing offshore wind projects located along the Ilocos Norte coasts with a projected capacity of around 2,000 MW, as well as in Northern Mindoro and East Panay, with projected capacities of 1,000 MW each.
