SMC Global gets CA favor over Ilijan dispute

The Ilijan Power Plant sits on a 60-acre site at Arenas Point, Barangay Ilijan in Batangas City. It consists of two blocks with a rated capacity of 600 MW each.

SMC Global Power Holdings Corp., a subsidiary of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., won anew versus the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) over the four-year dispute on the 1,200-megawat Ilijan power plant in Batangas.

In a filing WITH the Philippine Dealing Exchange over the weekend, SMC Global said the Court of Appeals’ (CA) fifth division, in a resolution dated 23 August, dismissed PSALM’s petition for certiorari against SMC Global’s subsidiary South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC).

CA said that PSALM failed to submit infirmities such as the names and addresses of the parties in the case as required under Section 3, Rule 46 of the Rules of Court, a copy of the petition to SPPC, and implead the RTC, among others.

“Upon perusal of the petition and its annexes, the Court rules to dismiss the petition,” CA said.

“Anent PSALM’s prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction, the court rules to deny the same,” it added.

SPPC bagged the Ilijan plant’s independent power producer administration (IPPA) through a public bidding on April 2010, but PSALM terminated the IPPA in 2015 allegedly for the group’s non-payment of generation charges it computed using Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rates instead of the approved rates by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

SPPC filed a complaint versus PSALM with the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court due to willful breach of contract as a result of a flawed interpretation of certain provisions in relation to generation payments, under the administration agreement.

Prior to the CA’s dismissal, the Supreme Court earlier this year also went in favor with SPPC when PSALM challenged the CA’s decision to affirm the writ of preliminary injunction.

PSALM has said that the group has failed to settle some P19.75 billion in taxes, but SPPC said that as of end-April this year, it paid as much as P289.1 billion for Ilijan. This comprised of P222.4

billion in energy fees and P66.66 billion in capacity fees.

By the time the contract expires in 2022, SPPC would have paid a total of P390.6 billion in energy fees and P97.60 billion in capacity fees.