Manila Electric Co. through power unit Meralco PowerGen Corp. has committed to develop 224 megawatts of solar power facilities by 2020.
“Recognizing the role of renewable energy in the overall dispatch, its inevitability due to its improving economics and the prevailing solar tariff at well below FiT (feed-in tariff) rates and also below coal and gas generation charges, MGen is currently working on several opportunities in wind, solar and hydropower development,” said Meralco PowerGen president Rogelio Singson.
“In addition, the large renewable energy requirement of distribution utilities and electric cooperatives under the Renewable Portfolio Standards is more than compelling reason for MGen to allocate resources into this area. In MGen’s development and investment list of targeted projects is a total of 224 MW land-based solar facilities,” said Singson said.
He said some of the solar projects would be completed this year while the remaining projects were up for completion next year.
Singson reiterated in March that Meralco PowerGen remained keen on solar and wind power development as part of its foray in renewable energy.
“In terms of the status of RE, we continue to discuss with a lot of developers. Most of these are covered by NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). We’re really focusing on securing sites for wind and solar. And we’re confident solar will be a major source of power within the next 3 to 5 years,” Singson said.
Meralco PowerGen said it was focused on the development of a portfolio of utility-scale solar generation projects to supply the Luzon grid and the customers of Meralco with competitive tariff.
“MGen believes solar generation will form an important part of the energy mix going forward and will be a growing source of generation without any subsidy. Discussions are ongoing with a number of existing project developers for potential partnerships,” the company said.
Meralco PowerGen is also looking to co-develop large-scale hybrid solar with storage projects outside the Meralco franchise area.