The Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) has completed on 27 August its bid opening for its 600-megawatt (MW) Competitive Selection Process  (CSP) baseload capacity, with six out of eight bidders submitting their bids.

It will be recalled that the said CSP was previously subject of a TRO issued by RTC-Taguig, acting on a complaint filed by tycoon Enrique Razon’s group Prime Energy and the SC 38 Consortium.

Based on court records, Prime Energy and SC 38 challenged Meralco’s Terms of Reference for the 600MW CSP claiming that it did not comply with DOE policy giving preference to indigenous natural gas (ING). Last week, the court dismissed the complaint for lack of jurisdiction, which allowed Meralco, through its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), to resume the activities for the 600MW CSP.

Meralco Senior Vice President and Regulatory Management Head, Atty. Jose Ronald Valles, said that the company is satisfied with the results of the bidding. “The transparency and competitiveness of MERALCO’s bidding process is underscored by the fact that majority of the price offers received were lower than the ceiling price set. In fact, the winning bidders’ offers were at least 1-peso lower than the reserved price.”

The bid offers of SMC’s Masinloc Power Partnership Co. Ltd. for 500MW and Aboitiz Power’s GNPD for 100MW were declared the possible best bids with an all-in rate of P5.6015/kwh and P5.7392/kwh, respectively. These rates are way below Meralco’s reserved price for levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) set at P7.2609/kwh. Based on official records, winning rates are also much lower than current billing of First Gas for its San Lorenzo Plant which use ING, at P7.5471/kwh.

Lower rates are always a welcome relief to customers. According to Atty. Valles, “We are happy that the main objective of the CSP, which is to secure the least cost supply for our customers, has been achieved. We hope that there will be no further delays as we work towards immediate signing of the PSAs resulting from the 600MW 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.”