ACEN bags long-term service contract in Australia

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala-led ACEN Corp. has bolstered its presence in Australia after securing a multi-year service contract for its large-scale renewable energy (RE) storage project, ensuring stable revenue streams.

The 800-megawatt (MW) ACEN Phoenix Pumped Hydro Energy Storage was selected for a long-term energy service agreement (LTESA) under the electricity infrastructure roadmap of New South Wales state in Australia.

The LTESA aims to accelerate investments in new RE infrastructure and reduce price uncertainty for investors in line with efforts to provide affordable power to consumers.

ACEN Australia said the LTESA would offer “greater revenue certainty” for the company, helping to mitigate key project development risks.

With a maximum storage capacity of 15 hours, Phoenix Pumped Hydro will store electricity generated by renewable sources like solar and wind, releasing it on demand when needed.

“The project will have purpose-built, off-stream, upper and lower storage reservoirs connected by a tunnel to a powerhouse containing a pump-turbine unit,” ACEN Australia said.

Phoenix Pumped Hydro is targeted for commercial operation in 2031.

The project is one of the three selected in the latest tender round, joining two large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities.

In a statement, the New South Wales government said the awarded projects represent a combined storage capacity of 1.03 gigawatts (GW), enough to power at least 500,000 households per day.

“This helps smoothen the supply of renewable energy around the clock, reducing price spikes and placing downward pressure on electricity prices over time,” it said.

ACEN Australia recently started the construction of the 400-MW-hour New England BESS located at the site of the group’s New England Solar.

Once completed, the project is poised to be one of Australia’s largest co-located solar and battery storage facilities that provide stored energy to the grid.

Currently, ACEN has more than one GW worth of RE projects in construction and operations across Australia, with over 13-GW capacity in the development pipeline.

As the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, the company has embarked on a bold target of achieving 20 GW of RE capacity by 2030.