Manila Electric Co., the biggest electricity retailer, said over the weekend it plans to construct a new modern substation facility to serve the increasing demand of Manila and replace the 66-year old Tegen substation after winning the bid for the Paco-Manila property of Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.
Meralco senior vice president and head of networks Ronnie Aperocho said part of the property would be used for office/lab/testing facility of Meralco operations.
“The Tegen substation is long overdue for replacement…We are very happy with the win,” Aperocho said.
PSALM, in a statement announced over the weekend that Meralco submitted the highest bid amounting to P632,162,185 and was thus declared the winning party for the Paco-Manila property. The lot consists of eight separate non-contiguous vacant lots, located at Isla de Provisor, Paco, Manila.
It has an indicative area of 20,975 square meters near the Meralco Tegen Substation, which houses various electrification equipment.
PSALM said the offer of Meralco surpassed the PSALM board-approved minimum offer price of P527,087,552.
“We are very happy that after several attempts to privatize this Paco-Manila property, we finally completed today the privatization process with a financial bid that is significantly above the minimum offer price set by the PSALM board,” PSALM president and chief executive Irene Besido Garcia said.
“We did not give up in trying to find the right buyer willing to pay the best price to the government. The proceeds of this privatization activity will be used by PSALM to pay the remaining stranded contract costs and stranded debts,” Garcia said.
The results of the negotiated sale will be subject to a post-qualification process to ensure that the winning negotiating party indeed meet all the financial and legal requirements indicated in the negotiation procedures.
PSALM said the other negotiating party was Toplis Solutions which was unable to include one of the required documents, while another document it submitted did not follow the mandated format and wordings.
Representatives from the Office of the City Mayor in Manila, Commission on Audit and National Power Corp. witnessed the proceedings.
PSALM manages the assets and liabilities of National Power Corp. under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.