3 firms near deal to supply 1,200MW to Meralco

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has narrowed down to three the qualified bidders for 10-year contracts to supply it with a total of 1,200 megawatts (MW).

Meralco said in a statement on Tuesday that the best bids were submitted by Phinma Energy Corp., San Miguel Energy Corp. and South Premiere Power Corp. (also a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp.).

Meralco said this was done in accordance with the Department of Energy (DOE) circular requiring distribution utilities to buy electricity through a Competitive Selection Process (CSP).

The CSP was administered by the Third Party Bids and Awards Committee (TPBAC), which was chaired by consumer representative and lawyer Ferdinand Domingo. The other consumer representative was Adrian Cristobal, former trade chief and now president of SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp.

The TPBAC made the findings based on a nondiscretionary “Pass/Fail” assessment for completeness after they determined that there was no failure of bidding on Sept. 9.

The best bids will now undergo postqualification. The TPBAC will issue respective notices of award in favor of those that will satisfactorily pass postqualification. There were reportedly five companies that submitted bids for the contract.

Phinma Energy’s bid was for contract capacity of 200 megawatts at a rate of P4.7450 a kilowatt-hour.

San Miguel Energy’s bid was for 330 MW at a rate of P4.6314 a kWh. South Premiere Power Corp.’s bid was for 670 MW at a rate of P4.6314 a kWh.

According to Meralco, the resulting prices from the CSP were significantly lower than their average generation cost today of around P5.84 a kWh.

Once implemented starting Dec. 26, 2019, Meralco consumers are expected to save around 30 centavos a kWh or P9.88 billion annually for 10 years from the new power supply agreements to be executed with the winning power suppliers.