MANILA: A unit of San Miguel Corp might bag a 200MW supply deal with Manila Electric Co (Meralco) after it submitted the lowest offer at a recent bidding.
In a statement, Meralco said six power generation companies took part in the auction.
Sual Power Inc (SPI) offered P4.2955 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the entire 200-MW requirement.
SPI’s offer was then declared as the “best bid”, the power distributor said.
Additionally, the supplier, a subsidiary of San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp, operates the 1,200-MW thermal plant in Pangasinan.
Delivering power to the Luzon grid for almost three decades now, the coal-fired power facility is considered the largest in the Philippines in terms of installed capacity.
Meralco also identified the possible next best bids: Mariveles Power Generation Corp at P4.3805 per kWh for the whole supply; Bac-Man Geothermal Inc at P4.5187 per kWh for 35 MW; and San Manuel Solar Inc at P4.5787 per kWh for 25MW.
Ayala-backed ACEN Corp also joined the auction, offering P5.2087 per kWh for 25MW of supply.
First Gen Hydro Power Corp offered P5.4906 per kWh for 25MW.
“As in previous years, this competitive selection process has successfully secured the required power supply for customers at the lowest possible cost, achieved through an open and transparent process,” said Lawrence Fernandez.
He chairs Meralco’s bids and awards committee for power supply agreements (PSA).
Meralco will do a post-qualification evaluation before issuing a notice of award and the execution of the PSA with the winning bidder.
Furthermore, the prospective supply deal would run for four years to comply with the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS).
This requires industry players to source 11% of their power sales from clean energy sources.
Although it received an offer from a coal-fired plant, Meralco can still meet its RPS obligations through renewable energy certificates (RECs).
The RECs can be sold or traded on the Renewable Energy Market, a platform for trading certificates that represent an equivalent amount of power generated from clean energy sources. — The Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
