Power retailer Manila Electric Co. received offers from six companies to participate in the competitive selection process or bidding for the supply of 400 megawatts of mid-merit capacity.
“Meralco’s BAC [bids and awards committee] received an aggregate offered capacity of 1,220 MW from six interested bidders,” Meralco vice president and head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said.
Meralco set the deadline for the submission of interest for the 400-MW 15-year supply on July 1.
The Department of Energy encouraged power suppliers with natural-gas fired power plants to participate in the bidding to prioritize the use of indigenous natural gas.
The company is seeking offers from power generators to supply 400 MW of mid-merit capacity by Aug. 26, 2025.
A mid-merit power plant is able to adjust its capacity based on demand at certain hours of the day.
“We encourage all power suppliers to participate as this is a huge 600 MW capacity. This will at least assure a more reliable and stable supply to Meralco customers…This is open to brownfield, open to greenfield power plants,” Meralco senior vice president and head of regulatory management office Jose Ronald Valles said earlier.
Meralco set the pre-bid conference on July 11, 2024. The bid submission deadline is scheduled on Aug. 9, 2024.
Interested bidders should supply 100 percent of the contract capacity for a continuous period of 15 hours, Mondays to Saturdays, covering the peak hours of 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 10 hours during Sundays covering the peak hours of 2 p.m. to 12 midnight.
Meralco has an ongoing CSP for 500 MW of mid-merit renewable energy (RE) capacity where three companies attended the pre-bid conference, including Gigasol3, San Roque Hydro Power and Santa Cruz Solar.
Meralco earlier said the 10-year power supply agreement (PSA) resulting from the 500-MW mid-merit RE CSP would cover Meralco’s 350-MW mid-merit requirement starting February 2025, which would increase by 150 MW beginning February 2026.
Meralco’s BAC set the bid submission deadline on July 17.
Meralco also has an ongoing CSP for 600 MW of baseload supply intended to meet the power distributor’s requirements starting next year.
The CSP involves a 15-year power supply agreement, which is targeted to start on Aug. 26, 2025. The pre-bid conference is scheduled on July 4, while the bid submission deadline is on Aug. 2, 2024.