Aboitiz submits lowest offer to Meralco

A unit of the Aboitiz Group emerged as the best bidder in the auction of the contract to supply 400 megawatts (MW) to distribution giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Bid papers for the contract were opened on Tuesday. These facilities are gap fillers ready to ramp up capacity in case electricity fluctuates throughout the day.

Three bidders had qualified to take part in the auction, with Aboitiz’s GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. setting the best bid for the contract at P7.6816 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the full 400 MW.

The other two bidders were San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp.’s Sual Power Inc. and Masinloc Power Co. Ltd., respectively offering 300 MW and 200 MW of generating capacity.

Sual’s offer was pegged at P7.7416 per kWh while Masinloc offered to provide supply at P7.8567 per kWh.

The Pangilinan-led distributor will have to launch a postqualification evaluation after this round, before issuing notices of award and executing power supply agreements.

Late in August, the units of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Aboitiz Group also submitted the lowest offers for another supply deal involving 600 MW.

Scheduled for delivery by August next year, the combined 1,000-MW power supply contracts cover a 15-year period.