ACEN and CIP Partner on San Miguel Bay Offshore Wind Project

Ayala Corporation (PSE:AC)–led ACEN Corporation (PSE:ACEN) has acquired a 25% minority stake in the planned 1-gigawatt (GW) San Miguel Bay Offshore Wind Power Project in Camarines Sur. The acquisition, through a definitive agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ (CIP) Growth Markets Fund II, marks ACEN’s first foray into offshore wind, a sector long considered untapped in the Philippine energy landscape.

A Serious Push Into Offshore Wind

What sets this project apart is not just its scale but its readiness. Despite being in the pre-development phase, it is one of the most advanced offshore wind initiatives in the Philippines. It has already secured a Wind Energy Service Contract (WESC) from the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2023 and several regulatory milestones, including:

• Green Lane status from the Board of Investments (February 2024), ensuring expedited permitting

• Certificate of Energy Project of National Significance (October 2024), granting priority treatment from government agencies

• Pre-development Environmental Compliance Certificate, enabling offshore surveys

• Connection Agreement with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (February 2025)

These certifications not only reflect governmental support but also reduce development risk, typically a major hurdle for utility-scale renewables.

The project's location near San Miguel Bay offers strategic advantages: high wind availability, shallow waters for ease of installation, proximity to shore and substations, and a relatively lower risk of typhoon damage due to its in-bay positioning. These features address several of the key engineering and logistical challenges that have long slowed offshore wind development in archipelagic and typhoon-prone nations like the Philippines.

A Partnership Built to Deliver

This partnership between ACEN and Denmark-based CIP, one of the world’s largest dedicated greenfield energy investors, brings together local market fluency and global technical depth. While CIP brings extensive experience in offshore wind execution across over 30 countries, ACEN’s on-the-ground relationships and regulatory navigation skills are instrumental in a market like the Philippines, where stakeholder engagement and land permitting remain complex.

The project is expected to bid in the upcoming fifth round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA-5), a DOE initiative aimed at scaling clean energy deployment through competitive procurement.

ACEN’s stake in this $3-billion project forms part of a broader regional push. The company currently holds a 7-GW portfolio across Asia Pacific and aims to triple that to 20 GW by 2030. Offshore wind is now a key part of that expansion.

CIP’s ambitions are even broader. With $5 billion earmarked for wind projects in the Philippines alone, its local portfolio includes the Camarines Sur venture as well as 650 MW and 350 MW projects in Northern Samar and Pangasinan, respectively. These are part of a larger pipeline of proposed offshore wind projects, which the DOE has estimated at a combined capacity exceeding 16 GW.

The urgency of developing offshore wind isn’t merely about capacity, it’s about timing. The current Philippine administration aims to deliver the country’s first operational offshore wind output by 2028. If successful, the San Miguel Bay project could be among the first to deliver electrons to the grid before the end of President Marcos Jr.’s term.

A Litmus Test for the Industry

Beyond technology and capacity, the ACEN-CIP tie-up sends a strong market signal. According to China Bank (PSE: CBC) Capital’s Managing Director Juan Paolo Colet, the partnership is well-positioned to attract a strong syndicate of banks for project financing, thanks to its combination of global technical credibility and local operational strength.

That’s critical in a segment where project financing remains difficult, especially in emerging markets. Offshore wind projects, due to their capital intensity and longer development cycles, typically require deep-pocketed sponsors and long-term financial partners. The entry of seasoned players like ACEN and CIP is likely to ease capital risk perceptions and potentially unlock more infrastructure lending locally and abroad.

Despite a coastline stretching over 36,000 kilometers and wind potential estimated by the World Bank at over 178 GW, the Philippines has yet to connect a single offshore wind turbine to its grid. That mismatch between potential and reality is largely due to policy ambiguity, transmission bottlenecks, and a lack of early institutional support.

Recent policy steps, such as the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop (EVOSS), Green Energy Auction programs, and open foreign ownership of renewable energy, have started to reverse this trend. The ACEN-CIP partnership could become a bellwether project that demonstrates how to effectively navigate this improved regulatory landscape.

The San Miguel Bay Offshore Wind Project is still years from commercial operation, but its groundwork, both technical and institutional, is already influencing how the Philippine energy sector thinks about offshore development. Its success or failure will likely shape how quickly, and at what scale, the country can tap its enormous wind resource.

As of today, there’s no official word on the expected commercial operation date. However, the target aligns closely with government objectives for 2028, making the next three years pivotal.

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