Company’s first hydropower project outside of Japan
TOKYO – (JCN Newswire) – Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO) announced today that it has acquired 36.38% of the shares in Viet Hydro Pte. Ltd. (Viet Hydro), the majority shareholder of Lao Cai Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company (Lao Cai Renewable Energy), from InfraCo Asia Development Pte. Ltd. (InfraCo Asia), a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), for the purpose of participating in the Coc San Hydropower Plant (total output: 29,700 kilowatts) in Lao Cai Province, Vietnam.
In the face of intensifying conditions within Japan’s electricity industry, TEPCO has been working to turn renewable energy into one of its primary energy sources to increase the company’s corporate value. As part of this strategy, TEPCO is newly pursuing the development of hydropower overseas and offshore wind power both in Japan and overseas. The company aims eventually to develop a total capacity of two to three million kilowatts of hydropower.
Coc San Hydropower Plant has been operating stably since launching commercial operations in April 2016, supported by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Northern Power Corporation, a power distributing subsidiary of Vietnam Electricity. Going forward, TEPCO expects to leverage its knowhow and experience from Japan to strengthen Coc San’s profitability through increased efficiency.
InfraCo Asia CEO, Allard Nooy, said, “As a respected international organization looking to grow its footprint in the renewable energy space, TEPCO is well-suited to build and expand upon InfraCo Asia’s role in the Coc San project. InfraCo Asia invested in the project early on with the aims of creating strong development impact and serving as a catalyst for private sector investment, for both the Coc San project and Vietnam’s renewable energy sector. TEPCO’s acquisition of a stake in InfraCo Asia provides strong validation for the promise of clean, renewable power in Vietnam, and serves as a benchmark for other private sector players who are considering investing in the country. We would like to thank the TEPCO team for their efforts, and we look forward to more fruitful collaborations in the future.”
TEPCO Representative Executive Vice President, Seiichi Fubasami, said, “It is a great pleasure for TEPCO to have been able to work with InfraCo Asia in the Coc San project, which is TEPCO’s first investment initiative in a hydropower project overseas. We hope to contribute to Coc San Hydropower Plant’s stable, long-term operation in cooperation with our investment partners and Coc San’s local community, based on our many years of accumulated experience in hydropower business in Japan. We also look forward to furthering our relationship with InfraCo Asia for future collaboration in both South and Southeast Asia.”
TEPCO will continue exploring opportunities to participate in other hydropower projects, mainly in Southeast Asia, and develop its overseas business by partnering with companies in Japan and overseas.
Attachment: Overview of Coc San Hydropower Plant, Vietnam
http://www.acnnewswire.com/clientreports/598/overview.pdf
About TEPCO
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO) is Japan’s largest power company group, holding three independent business entities: TEPCO Fuel & Power, Inc., TEPCO Power Grid, Inc., and TEPCO Energy Partner, Inc. As a group, it generates, distributes, and sells electricity and other types of energy principally to the Kanto metropolitan area, which includes Japan’s two most populous cities, Tokyo and Yokohama. Its 42,060 employees are committed to providing safe, reliable power as well as fulfilling its responsibilities to the communities of Fukushima. (As of April 1, 2017)
– TEPCO Website: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html
– TEPCO Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialTEPCOen
– TEPCO Twitter page: https://twitter.com/TEPCO_English
About InfraCo Asia
InfraCo Asia Development Pte Ltd (InfraCo Asia) is a commercially managed infrastructure development and investment company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG).
Headquartered in Singapore, it stimulates greater private sector investment in infrastructure in South and South East Asia. InfraCo Asia funds high-risk infrastructure development activities by taking an equity stake with a focus on socially responsible and commercially viable infrastructure projects that contribute to economic growth, social development and poverty reduction. At the appropriate time, either as close as possible to financial close and/or commercial operation, InfraCo Asia aims to (partially or fully, as appropriate) exit each project. It does this through the sale of its stake to the private sector in order to catalyse private sector investment and participation into the projects and countries it is engaged with.
InfraCo Asia is currently funded by three members of PIDG – the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the UK Department for International Development (UKAid).
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) encourages and mobilises private investment in infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-east Asia, to help promote economic development and combat poverty. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 170 infrastructure projects to financial close, of which 95 are fully operational. PIDG is a multilateral organisation, funded by seven countries (UK, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany) and the World Bank Group. For more information, please visit www.infracoasia.com and www.pidg.org.
InfraCo Asia Press Release: http://www.acnnewswire.com/clientreports/598/InfraCo.pdf
Media Inquiries:
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.
Corporate Communications, Global Communication Group
+81-3-6373-1111