Four conglomerates expressed interest in participating in Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) competitive selection process for its 400-megawatt (MW) mid-merit supply requirement.
These are First Gas Power Corp. and First Natgas Power Corp. of Lopez-led First Gen Corp.; FDC Misamis Power Corp. of the Filinvest Group; Masinloc Power Co. Ltd. and Sual Power Inc. of San Miguel Corp.; and GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. of Aboitiz Power Corp. that attended the pre-bid conference for the 400-MW CSP on Thursday.
A mid-merit power plant can adjust its capacity based on demand at certain hours of the day, while a baseload power plant is capable of running 24 hours a day.
“Following the success of our recent CSP for 600 MW of baseload supply where Meralco received very competitive offers, we welcome the continued interest of the country’s major energy players to join this CSP round that will help us ensure availability of least-cost supply for our customers starting next year,” Meralco bids and awards committee chairman Lawrence Fernandez said.
“We look forward to the participation of these prospective bidders during the bid submission deadline and bid opening scheduled on Oct. 1,” Fernandez said.
Meralco senior vice president and head of regulatory management Jose Ronald Valles said the CSP aims to secure the least-cost supply for customers.
“We hope that there will be no further delays as we work towards immediate signing of the PSAs resulting from the 600 MW CSP. We trust that ERC evaluation and approval will also be swift so customers can enjoy these very low rates upon scheduled delivery date in August 2025,” Valles said.
The resulting 15-year power supply agreement/s (PSA/s) for Meralco’s 400-MW mid-merit requirement is targeted to start by Aug. 26, 2025.
Interested bidders should be able to supply 100 percent of the contract capacity for a continuous period of 15 hours during 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, based on the terms of reference.
Meralco on Tuesday secured the lowest offers for its 600-MW supply requirement from two power generation companies through another CSP.
Masinloc Power Co. Ltd. offered P5.6015 per kWh for 500-MW capacity, while GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. offered to supply the remaining 100-MW baseload requirement at a rate of P5.7392 per kWh.
Both offers were lower than the P7.2609 per kWh reserve price set for the bidding.
