MPIC set to build 4,000-MW power portfolio

The Metro Pacific group, which has been increasing its stake in the power sector, expects to build up a group-wide power generation portfolio of 4,000 megawatts based on its current pipeline of power plants.

“We have to be open to the fuel source base within that 4,000 MW,” Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chief finance officer David Nicol said in a briefing last week.

“We have a group portfolio of potential coal-fired projects but there’s also gonna be a wave of investments in renewables,” Nicol said.

If and when that time comes when greater capital is needed for renewable investments, Nicol said the group could consider bringing a strategic partner in Beacon Electric Asset Holdings.

In June 2017, MPIC acquired the remaining 25 percent ownership in Beacon Electric held by PLDT group for P21.8 billion, bringing its economic interest in Meralco to 45.5 percent and in Global Power, to 62.4 percent.

“We have plans for Beacon to continue in the power generation, geographically in the Visayas and Mindanao,” MPIC president Jose Ma. Lim said.

“Beacon right now is also holding our stake in Meralco which has its own investment area. Power generation plans within Meralco are going to be separate from that of the companies we have under Beacon but that does not mean that later on we will not rationalize the organization,” Lim said.

Such rationalization, Lim said, had yet to be discussed within the group. “For now, we continue to develop projects at Global Business Power and Meralco.

The group’s position is at the Beacon level, the restrictions on power generation capacity applicable to Meralco won’t be carried over.

Under the energy deregulation law, no company or related group can own, operate or control more than 30 percent of the installed generating capacity of a grid and/or 25 percent of the national installed generating capacity. Furthermore, for entities with distribution capacity like Meralco, they can not purchase more than 50 percent of its distribution capacity from their own generation plants.