3 firms step closer to bagging Meralco deal

Manila Electric Company said on Thursday that three companies gave the best bids for a contract to supply the utility with 500 megawatts for five years.

Meralco said in a statement that the best bids were submitted by First Gen Hydro Power Corp., Phinma Energy Corp., and South Premiere Power Corp.

This comes on the heels of another bidding, which was for a 10-year 1,200-MW contract to supply Meralco. Phinma and South Premiere submitted the best bids there as well.

The bidding for the 500-MW contract was done in accordance with the Department of Energy circular requiring distribution utilities to buy power through a Competitive Selection Process.

The CSP was administered by the Third-Party Bids and Awards Committee (TPBAC) that was constituted pursuant to the DOE circular.

First Gen Hydro Power Corp.’s bid was for contract capacity of 100 MW at a rate of P5.1908 a kilowatt-hour.

Phinma Energy Corp.’s bid was for 110 MW at a rate of P5.5858 a kWh. South Premiere Power Corp.’s bid was for 290 MW at a rate of P5.5347 a kWh.

The best bids will now undergo postqualification and the TPBAC is expected to issue the respective Notices of Award in favor of those who satisfactorily passed post-qualification on Sept. 12, 2019, to be followed by the signing of the Power Supply Agreements with Meralco next week.

Meralco declared that the CSP on Thursday would result in additional savings and, ultimately, least cost to consumers.

According to Meralco, the resulting prices from the CSP were significantly lower than their average generation cost today of around P5.88 per kWh.  The results of the bidding for 500 MW are expected to save consumers P4.4 billion annually for the next five years.

This is equivalent to a rate reduction of around P0.13 per kWh for consumers, starting Dec. 26.

Along with the 1,200-MW contract CSP, consumers are projected to enjoy total savings of around P13.86 billion per year, or a rate reduction of PhP 0.41 per kWh.

The TPBAC 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.