Meralco seeks perks for $1.28B project

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, is seeking incentives from the Board of Investments (BoI) for its $1.28 billion (roughly P55 billion) coal-fired power plant project in the Subic freeport.

Meralco president and CEO Oscar S. Reyes said Wednesday the company had filed for BoI registration, with an endorsement from the Department of Energy, as it intends to pursue the Subic project as scheduled, despite protests lodged against it.

According to Reyes, the company remains committed to operating the 600-megawatt coal power plant by 2015 to shore up power supply in the Luzon grid.

The construction of the facility is being undertaken by subsidiary Meralco PowerGen Corp., through a joint-venture vehicle company named Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy).

Meralco PowerGen is the controlling shareholder of RP Energy with 50 percent plus two shares, while Aboitiz Power Corp., through subsidiary Therma Power Inc., and Taiwan Cogeneration International Corp. (Philippine branch) own the remaining shares equally.

Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, meanwhile, said the Subic coal project was “in an advanced stage of development with site preparation nearing completion and the grid impact study for transmission lines and interconnection well underway.”

The grid impact study, according to Pangilinan, seeks to identify the most efficient way to connect the RP Energy plant to the grid transmission system of National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

“We are scheduled to award the contract for the engineering, procurement and construction contract in the third quarter of 2012. Meralco PowerGen is also working in a broad range of pre-development studies in other power-generating projects using clean coal, natural gas, liquefied natural gas and hydro as fuel sources,” he said.—Amy R. Remo