First Gen to supply hydro power to 21 FPIP sites

First Gen Corporation has signed a landmark renewable energy deal to supply hydroelectric power to 21 facilities within the First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP) under the government’s Retail Aggregation Program (RAP), marking a first-of-its-kind move in the Philippine energy market.

The agreement, finalized on July 21 in Batangas, was made possible through First Gen’s retail electricity arm, First Gen Energy Solutions (FGES), and will deliver clean energy from its Pantabangan-Masiway and Casecnan hydroelectric power plants in Nueva Ecija.

This is the first time a group of contestable customers within an industrial park has consolidated demand under RAP to negotiate collectively for renewable energy.

“We have a diversified renewable energy portfolio and increasing demand for RE from customers to meet their sustainability and decarbonization goals,” said Francis Giles Puno, president of First Gen and FPIP.

“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 added.

RAP, launched by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2022, allows multiple electricity consumers within a contiguous area to aggregate their energy demand to meet the 500-kilowatt (kW) monthly threshold required to choose their supplier under the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) regime.

FPIP, a 600-hectare ecozone in Batangas co-developed by the Lopez Group and Sumitomo Corporation, consolidated its consumption with its subsidiaries—FPIP Property Developers & Management Corporation and FPIP Utilities, Inc.—to qualify under the program.

The 21 facilities covered by the RAP agreement are part of FPIP’s infrastructure, which serves more than 150 multinational locators, including global manufacturers like Dyson, Nestlé, Canon, Honda, Collins Aerospace, and the Philippine Manufacturing Co. of Murata Inc.

FGES will meet the collective demand of these facilities using power from the 132-MW Pantabangan-Masiway and 165-MW Casecnan hydro plants, both of which are owned and operated by First Gen’s renewable energy portfolio.

This initiative aligns with the Lopez Group’s long-standing mission of “forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.”

Beyond the RAP deal, First Gen has also signed renewable supply contracts with individual FPIP locators through the RCOA and the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP), another Department of Energy initiative that allows eligible consumers to directly contract with renewable energy suppliers.

First Gen currently operates 28 renewable power plants across the country with a combined capacity of more than 1,600 megawatts (MW), spanning geothermal, wind, solar, and hydro energy.

To ensure grid reliability and meet baseload requirements, First Gen also manages 2,017 MW of gas-fired capacity through a joint venture with Prime Infrastructure Capital.

The deal is expected to serve as a model for other industrial parks and ecozones seeking to transition to cleaner, more cost-efficient energy sources under the evolving open-access power market.