Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation arm of Manila Electric Co., plans to construct 350 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, with some projects expected to come online as early as next year, officials said Tuesday.
“In terms of the commitment of the group to expand our RE projects, we are lining up in the immediate future [or] as early as 2020 about 350 MW of RE projects that are almost near completion,” Meralco PowerGen president Rogelio Singson said.
Singson said as these renewable energy projects were covered by non-disclosure agreements, he could not disclose further details.
“There’s solar. We’re also looking at microgrids, wind,” Singson said, referring to the types of renewable projects in the pipeline.
Meralco president Ray Espinosa said once a deal was firmed up, the company would make the necessary announcement.
“They do have a number of potential deals in the pipeline that have NDA, so we aren’t able to mention these yet… I think there should be one or two [deals] maybe this year,” Espinosa said.
Meralco PowerGen expects to take advance of the implementation of the renewable energy portfolio standards or RPS, which requires distribution utilities to source a fraction of their power supply from eligible RE resources.
Meralco is required to source about 500 MW to 600 MW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, officials said.
The power distributor announced in June the target to invest in 1,000 MW of renewable energy projects over the next five to seven years.
“We announce that we are developing 1,000 MW of renewable energy projects in the next five to seven years, joining the inexorable shift to renewable energy and the adoption of sustainable practices in everything we do,” Espinosa said.
Meralco PowerGen established subsidiary MGEN Renewable Energy Inc. to serve as the platform for the strategic push for renewable energy projects, primarily solar, wind and run-of-river hydro facilities.
The new company aims to bring in additional supply to support the Philippines’ growth momentum and help ensure the availability of green and cost-competitive power supply in the coming years.
Meralco PowerGen earlier focused on developing coal-fired power projects such as the 455-megawatt San Buenaventura coal plant in Quezon and the 1,200-MW Atimonan coal-fired power project.
Meralco is the country’s biggest power retailer with more than six million customers in its franchise area.