THE largest electric cooperative in the country, Batangas II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (BATELEC II), is now powered by clean and renewable energy under the Cleanergy brand of AboitizPower.
BATELEC II, which has a peak demand of 132 megawatts (MW), is the largest of all 119 electric cooperatives in the country. The bold move to go renewables is yet another groundbreaking initiative of its management to diversify its portfolio while being responsive to customers’ call for a more sustainable operations.
The electric cooperative and AboitizPower sealed their partner-ship for a 3-MW Cleanergy supply on December 18, 2019 at Lima Park Hotel, Malvar, Batangas.
“We’ve been in the business for over four decades, and this is the first time we have decided to venture into the open access business and activate our Local Retail Electricity Supplier. To make a difference, we have decided to source renewable supply to serve our contestable customers. It’s such a bold move so we need a dependable partner to support us in this sustainability journey, and we trust AboitizPower can do just that,” Octavious Mendoza, BATELEC II General Manager, said.
The Cleanergy supply will be sourced from the Tiwi-MakBan geothermal power plants, which are being ope-rated and managed by AboitizPower subsidiary AP Renewables, Inc. (APRI). It will be utilized by BATELEC II for its local retail electricity supply (LRES) customers.
The partnership is favorable as APRI’s geothermal plants are also located in Batangas and neighboring province of Laguna. In addi-tion, APRI will also supply BATELEC II with a 20-MW emergency power supply for a period of one year, from December 26, 2019 to December 25, 2020. The agreement for this additional Cleanergy supply was signed on December 23, 2019.
“We are very pleased to be the partner of choice of BATELEC II for their Cleanergy supply. It’s an honor for us to serve the growing number of customers who are pushing for a more sustainable energy source,” Juan Alejandro Aboitiz, AboitizPower First Vice President for Energy Trading and Sales, said.
Together with partners, AboitizPower currently has around 1,200 MW of Cleanergy capacity from its hydro, geothermal, and solar power plants that are strategically located nationwide in support of the country’s rapidly growing demand for clean and renewable energy.
Meanwhile, apart from serving its contestable customers through LRES, BATELEC II also supplies electricity to its franchise area of more than 300,000 households across 15 municipalities and two cities in Batangas.|- BALIKAS News Network