Meralco, SMC unit to continue supply deal

Manila Electric Co. and conglomerate San Miguel Corp. have been allowed to extend their power supply agreement to ensure continued supply of affordable electricity in the Cavite economic zone (CEZ).

In an order, the Energy Regulatory Commission said the extension of the agreement under the same terms and conditions until Dec. 25 this year or three months after the start of the open access and retail competition, whichever comes earlier, would “redound to the benefit of the consumers in terms of continuous, reliable, efficient and affordable power supply.”

This means that San Miguel’s energy unit South Premiere Power Corp., will be able to continue supplying electricity to Meralco and its customers, the ecozone locators, at a more affordable rate of P3.9429 a kilowatt-hour. This is reportedly much lower than the average generation rate of state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor).

The ERC also assured the public that the power supply agreement between Meralco and San Miguel’s energy subsidiary South Premiere Power would not have an impact on the power distributor’s other customers since the supply would be used solely for the Cavite ecozone, a highly industrialized region with 346 locators operating within it.

South Premiere Power will be supplying electricity to Meralco from the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan natural gas power plant in Batangas. It is the independent power producer administrator (Ippa) for the Ilijan facility, which means that it is responsible for the management of the contracted capacity and the procurement of fuel.