Absolute Clean Energy Public Company Limited (SET: ACE) has announced the progress of its power plant projects facing legal proceedings or force majeure events that led to two projects being proceeded for a total capacity of 90 megawatts and one project to be terminated.
1) VSPP biomass power plant projects under development, totaling 8 projects, with a total installed capacity of 79.2 megawatts, whose owners, ACE subsidiaries, filed a petition with the Central Administrative Court requesting to enforce the arbitral tribunal’s awards.
Recent progress
On 22 September 2023, the Central Administrative Court ruled in all 8 cases, ordering the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to comply with the arbitral tribunal’s awards. Subsequently, on 21 November 2023, PEA returned to the project owners a total of 8 power purchase agreements, with a total installed capacity of 79.2 megawatts and a total sales capacity of 64 megawatts. These power plant projects have since been prepared to engage in the subsequent phases of project development.
2) Thoen Clean Energy Power Plant Project that has opened for commercial operation (COD), a biomass power plant (VSPP) with an installed capacity of 9.9 megawatts, whose project owner, Advance Bio Asia Company Limited (ABA), ACE’s subsidiary, was brought to the Administrative Court by a group of people in Lampang Province requesting that the court revoke the owner’s license to operate an electricity generating plant.
Recent progress
On 2 October 2023, Chiang Mai Administrative Court announced the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court’s judgment which concluded that the process of issuing the factory operating license (Ror.Ngor. 4) of Thoen Clean Energy Power Plant was lawful. The court therefore upheld the decision made by the Chiang Mai Administrative Court to dismiss the case. As a result, the case became final with ABA winning the case.
3) Nabon 1 Clean Energy Power Plant Project and Nabon 2 Clean Energy Power Plant Project, renewable energy power plant projects in the form of SPP Hybrid Firm, with a total installed capacity of both projects of 50 megawatts that were under development but had encountered force majeure events.
Recent progress
On 5 October 2023, ACE Solar Company Limited (ACE Solar) and Bio Power Plant Company Limited (BPP), the subsidiaries that own Nabon 1 Clean Energy Power Plant Project and Nabon 2 Clean Energy Power Plant Project, respectively, reached an agreement with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the contracting party, to terminate the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of the two aforementioned projects. The agreements were terminated due to force majeure events both projects had faced, which neither ACE Solar nor BPP was at fault. EGAT would return the performance guarantee in compliance with the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), which is a bank guarantee, to ACE Solar and BPP. The guarantee amount is 172 million Baht for each project.
