Two power generation giants — San Miguel Corp., or SMC, and Aboitiz Power Corp. — won the competitive selection process, or CSP, of the Manila Electric Co., or Meralco for 1,800 megawatts, or MW, of future base load supply.
Meralco announced yesterday that AboitizPower's GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co., or GNPD, and SMC's Mariveles Power Generation Corp., or MPGC, and Excellent Energy Resources Inc., or EERI submitted the lowest offers for Meralco's future baseload requirement.
GNPD offered a total levelized cost of electricity, or LCOE, rate of P6.8580 per kilowatt-hour, or kWh, for 300 MW of the total requirement, while MPGC offered P6.9971 per kWh LCOE for another 300 MW of supply.
EERI, meanwhile, put in the bid for the biggest 1,200-MW supply at P7.1094 per kWh LCOE.
Masinloc Power Co. Ltd., or MPCL, also owned by SMC, and the other generation company that participated in the bidding, offered 300 MW at a rate of P7.1417 per kWh.
However, with EERI's bid completing the required 1,800 MW total supply requirement, MPCL's bid was designated as a possible next-best bid.
According to Meralco's bids and awards committee for Power Supply Agreements, or PSAs, only four of six bidders who expressed interest in participating in the CSP submitted their qualification documents, technical proposal, and bid price.
Complete check
The committee added that all submissions underwent a very stringent pass/fail completeness assessment and pre-qualification evaluation.
Following the announcement of the CSP results, the BAC-PSA will conduct a post-qualification evaluation and submit its recommendation and report to Meralco's board for approval of the best bids as the winning power suppliers before the issuance of Notices of Award.
"As a regulated entity, Meralco has conducted its business in full compliance with all rules and regulations issued by the ERC and DOE," Meralco BAC-PSA chairperson Lawrence Fernandez said.
"The terms of reference, or TOR, conformity to Meralco's Power Supply Procurement Plan were likewise reviewed and approved by the DOE and, in the process of the bidding, was updated to consider the recommendations of ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta," he added.
Meralco had announced that at least two companies should win the CSP following the directive of both the Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission to uphold fair competition.
Meralco's 1800-MW baseload requirement will start in December 2024, which will replace the capacity covered by Meralco's 2021 power supply agreement or PSA with EERI and MPCL, which were terminated last year after the cost of power spiked.