2 power firms want to join power auction–Meralco
BY LENIE LECTURA – FEBRUARY 14, 2022
from Business Mirror
Two power firms are keen on challenging an unsolicited bid offer to supply the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) 850 megawatts (MW) of mid-merit renewable energy.
Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez said, however, that he could not divulge the identities of the firms yet, pending the actual bidding next month.
“There were two companies that expressed interest to participate in the competitive challenge. Thus, we have three participants in the CSP [competitive selection process), the original proponent and two challengers,” said Fernandez.
Meralco received last month Terra Solar’s unsolicited bid offer. It proposed a P6.0800 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) headline rate and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).
Terra Solar is the special purpose vehicle of Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. and Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings, Inc.
Terra Solar will source power from its planned solar power plants with Energy Storage System (ESS) in Batangas-Cavite, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, and Zambales. The bid invite stated that these plants are under development.
The offer includes 600 MW to be made available for Meralco by February 26, 2026; while the additional 250 MW is expected to be delivered starting February 26, 2027.
As part of the CSP, Meralco invited interested firms to challenge Terra Solar’s offer.
“Meralco, through the Third-Party Bids and Awards Committee (TPBAC), hereby invites all interested and qualified parties to participate in the competitive challenge bidding,” Meralco said. The deadline for the submission of bids is on March 7.
The bidders may change their indicated nominated power plant until February 28.
They are required to pay P4.25 million in participation fee in order to become an interested bidder and to obtain bid documents. An additional P2.5-billion bid security is required.
This CSP round is in compliance with the Department of Energy’s policy on Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and forms part of Meralco’s efforts to source up to 1,500 MW of its power requirements from renewable energy sources.
“We aim to accelerate our transition to cleaner energy as we pledge to source 1,500MW of power requirements from renewable energy sources in the next five years,” Meralco President Ray Espinosa said last year. “We’re also committed to building up to 1,500MW in utility scale renewable energy power plants in the next five to seven years.”
Incidentally, Meralco’s power generation arm, Meralco PowerGen Corp., is developing renewable projects with a total capacity of 1,500MW. It has already built a 55MW solar power plant in Bulacan, which started operations in May last year.
