Meralco taps 3rd party to manage its power supply procurements

By Myrna M. Velasco – July 26, 2019, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has already formed the five-man third party bids and awards committee (TPBAC) that will carry out the competitive selection process (CSP) for its targeted 2,900 megawatts of power supply procurements, according to company President Ray C. Espinosa.

The third party CSP body for its targeted power supply agreements (PSAs) will be chaired by lawyer Ferdinand A. Domingo, an expert in local and international procurements and he will be representing the consumer group being a captive subscriber of Meralco. Another consumer representative is lawyer and former Trade and Industry Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr.

The distribution utility representatives in the TPBAC are Engineer Froilan J. Savet, head of Network Planning and Project Management of Meralco; Bennette D. Bachoco, head of Financial Planning and Reporting and General Controllership of the company; and then Maria Luisa V. Alvendia, first vice president and supply chain advisor of the utility firm who has more than 25 years of experience in procurement across industries such as in automotive, telecommunications, information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) businesses in Asia and North America.

As instituted in the Department of Energy (DOE) policy, the distribution utilities (DUs) are required to set up a “third party bids and awards committee” to spearhead and manage their respective CSP processes. That third party CSP body shall comprise of five members – three of whom shall come from the concerned DU; and two members shall be from the league of captive customers “that are not directly or indirectly related/affiliated to the DU.”

Espinosa noted that of the 2,900MW scheduled supply procurements; the greenfield capacity of 1,200MW shall just be from one project; while for the brownfield procurement for baseload capacity, the minimum offer from power suppliers or generation companies shall be at 200 megawatts.

For the mid-merit capacity auction, the Meralco chief executive emphasized that the minimum capacity offer shall be at 100MW – and the total procurement for this supply portfolio shall be at 500MW.