Manila Electric Co., the biggest retailer of electricity, signed Friday 10-year supply agreements with the three winning bidders over the supply of 1,200 megawatts of base-load power effective December 26.
The signing followed the issuance of the notice of award to the three best bids offered by Phinma Energy Corp., San Miguel Energy Corp. and South Premiere Power Corp. for the supply of 1,200 megawatts from December 26, 2019 to December 25, 2029.
Meralco president and chief executive officer Ray Espinosa said the signing of the PSAs marked the successful culmination of a competitive selection process following a circular from the Department of Energy requiring distribution utilities to purchase power through CSPs.
“This is a great day for customers. This is a day that we are able to deliver savings to them of more than P9.4 billion a year for the next 10 years through this three auspicious contracts… It is a great day again for our customers in our franchise area that even Friday the 13th do not deny them the great benefit of the contract today. The success of the bidding clearly disproves recent claims that the bidding will not result in lower generation charges. Those critics were flat wrong,” Espinosa said.
“In the end we have to thank the DOE and DOE Secretary Al Cusi for the leadership and guidance for this historical competitive selection process. I would like to thank in behalf of Meralco and myself our power suppliers San Miguel Group and Ayala Phinma Group for responding to the bidding and offering rates that are much lower than current generation charges and even much lower than Meralco’s reserve price,” the official said.
The PSAs will be filed with the Energy Regulatory Commission to undergo regulatory proceedings and evaluation.