Meralco’s generation unit asks ERC to approve supply agreements
By Alena Mae S. Flores – October 29, 2017 at 08:36 pm
from manilastandard.net
Meralco PowerGen Corp. is asking the Energy Regulatory Commission to act on pending power supply agreements with parent company and retailer Manila Electric Co. to ensure the security of supply in Luzon.
“For a time, I know ERC was in a period of flux. With ERC now stabilizing, we will go back to them and reappeal to them,” newly appointed Meralco PowerGen president Rogelio Singson said.
Singson, a former Public Works and Highways secretary, was also appointed as a senior vice president of Meralco, the country’s biggest power distributor.
Meralco PowerGen is a wholly-owned unit of Meralco in charge of developing power generation projects. Meralco PowerGen plans to develop up to 3,000 megawatts of power projects.
Meralco has pending power supply agreements with the ERC for three power projects which are being developed by Meralco PowerGen.
Singson said the country would need additional busload capacity. He said Meralco PowerGen’s primary objective was to bring highly-fuel efficient and reliable power plants.
“We are now focusing on clean coal plants… The focus is on general direction of Mgen in terms of the needs of Meralco, where we want to go. The industry is changing. We are seeing some erosion in terms of energy sources. We think RE [renewable energy[ and LNG [liquefied natural gas] will see a strong play in current sources,” Singson said.
Meralco PowerGen plans to build up additional capacities to secure Meralco’s future power requirements, aside from owning a stake in Global Business Power Corp.
“Two of our projects, Atimonan One Energy Inc. and Redondo Peninsula Energy are both shovel-ready to start construction. Beyond our apprehension regarding the price-and-period validity of our engineering, procurement and construction contracts and financing agreements, we are genuinely concerned about the power situation and the impact on the price in a supply-challenged environment, and we would like solutions to these,” Meralco president Oscar Reyes said.
Meralco PowerGen owns a majority stake in Atimonan One Energy Inc., the project company of the 1,200-megawatt ultra supercritical coal plant in Atimonan, Quezon.
The project is awaiting approval by ERC for a power supply agreement with Meralco.
A mandate letter for up to P107.5 billion from eight banks has been signed for the Atimonan project.
Meralco PowerGen also owns a stake in San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co., which is constructing the 455-MW coal-fired power plant in Mauban, Quezon, one of the first state-of-the-art super-critical coal-fired power plants in the country which is up for completion by mid-2019.
Meralco PowerGen also owns a stake in Redondo Peninsula Energy’s 600-MW coal plant in Subic, Zambales which is also awaiting an approval of its power supply agreement with Meralco. The first 300 MW of the project is up for completion by late 2021.
Meralco PowerGen also develops St. Rafael Power Generation Corp., s 700-MW coal plant in Calaca, Batangas with Semirara Mining and Power Corp.
St. Rafael will sell power to Meralco for up to 400 MW of capacity under a pending PSA.
