SMC tells DOE it pays its dues

The San Miguel group insists it has no outstanding debts to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. related to the Ilijan power plant in Batangas, saying it “religiously pays” its dues.

San Miguel president Ramon S. Ang said in a briefing yesterday that South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of SMC Global Power Corp., has as of August paid PSALM a total of P238 billion in various fees for the 1,200-megawatt combined cycle Ilijan plant.

Ang was reacting to reports that the Department of Energy (DoE) was asking SPPC to honor its contractual obligation to the government as the administrator of the power plant, by way of an administration agreement struck in 2010.

Ang said that of SPPC’s total payments to PSALM so far, P187 billion was for energy fees while P51 billion accounted for capacity fees.

Ang said that as SPPC “continues to honor its contractual obligations, the company would pay PSALM a total of P384 billion by 2022, of which P287 billion is for energy fees and P97 billion for capacity fees.

But Ang said that based on PSALM’s computation, SPCC should shell out an additional P10 billion.

This, he said, was based on PSALM’s insistence that Ilijan should have sold electricity through the wholesale electricity spot market, where prices spiked in November and December of 2013.

The San Miguel president said such high prices — reaching as high as P15.56 a kilowatt-hour — were a fluke.

Spot prices have since gone down to less than P3 a kwh.