Ratch Australia signs up Aldi Foods in second PPA for Collector wind farm

RATCH Australia has bagged a second offtake agreement for its 227MW Collector wind farm in the New South Wales Southern Tablelands, after inking a deal with retail supermarket giant Aldi Foods earlier this week.

The Thailand-based Ratch Group said in a statement on Wednesday that its fully-owned Australian subsidiary had entered into a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Aldi to buy 19.40 per cent of the power generated by the Collector project, starting with the expected commencement of commercial generation in early 2021.

The new PPA comes hot on the heels of another major deal signed earlier this month with Australian renewables developer and retailer, Infigen Energy.

As RenewEconomy reported at the time, that agreement to purchase 60 per cent of Collector wind farm’s output added momentum to Infigen’s expansion into the electricity retailer space.

Infigen Energy, first and foremost a wind farm developer, has sought to reposition itself as an integrated electricity company, expanding its operations to provide electricity retailer services for commercial and industrial customers.

Ratch CEO Kijja Sripatthangkura said this week that new PPA with Aldi offered the Collector project – with a forecast annual electricity generation capacity of around 528GWh – “significant stability” both in terms of generation and revenue.

“To date, the company has successfully secured the Collector project with two off-takers who will procure nearly 80 per cent of its generating capacity, representing approximately 419.23 gigawatt-hours a year for 10 years,” Kijja said.

“It brings positive consequences not only to generation efficiency of the project but also stable and steady income and cash flow of the company. The 20.6 per cent of the remaining electricity capacity will be supplied in the Australian power pool market.”

Ratch says the Collector wind farm is aiming for first production in November 2020 and full commercial operation in January 2021.

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