Meralco signs power deal for summer

Manila Electric Co. has signed a power supply deal as part of efforts to secure 579 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity to meet its customers’ requirements for the summer months of 2015, head of utility economics Lawrence S. Fernandez said.

The interim power supply agreement (IPSA) was signed with PanAsia Energy Inc. for power coming from the Limay power plant.

The IPSA will take effect upon the issuance of the final approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission and will expire on July 25, 2015.

The IPSA will involve the sale of up to 270 MW of power from Jan. 26 to April 25 and another 180 MW from April 26 to July 25, 2015.

The IPSA was entered into to help mitigate the impact of the projected supply shortfall during the summer months of 2015, as part of Meralco’s continuing efforts to source additional capacities through interim bilateral contracts with power producers.

Meralco president Oscar S. Reyes earlier said the company was contracting portions of power plant capacities owned by Global Business Power Corp. (Global Power); 1590 Energy, Inc., and Panasia Energy, Inc.—the same companies Meralco tapped for the summer months of 2014—in anticipation of higher demand. Meralco was also tapping power from the BacMan geothermal plant.

Besides IPSAs, Reyes said Meralco was also keen on signing up participants for the interruptible load program (ILP) to help address the anticipated power supply deficit next year.

Under the ILP, big establishments will be asked to run their own generating sets in times of shortage in exchange for compensation.