6 bidders vie for Meralco CSP

MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel, First Gen, and an Aboitiz-Ayala-led joint venture are among those looking to vie for the 1,800-megawatt (MW) of power supply to be procured by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) through a competitive selection process (CSP).

The six bidders that have expressed interest to supply Meralco with 1,800-MW  to meet the growing demand of its customers starting next year are: GNPower Dinginin (GNPD), First NatGas Power, SP New Energy, Mariveles Power Generation, Excellent Energy Resources and Masinloc Power Partners.

GNPD, a partnership among AboitizPower’s Therma Power Inc., Ayala Corp.’s AC Energy Holdings Inc., and Power Partners Ltd. Co., owns a 1,336-MW coal-fired power plant in Mariveles, Bataan.

First NatGas Power Corp., for its part, is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Gen, which owns and operates the 420-MW natural gas-fired San Gabriel power plant.

Mariveles Power Generation, Excellent Energy Resources, and Masinloc Power Partners, are all subsidiaries of San Miguel Global Power.

SP New Energy, meanwhile, is an integrated developer, owner, and operator of solar power projects which is currently majority-owned by Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc.

“There are about more than 3,000 MW that participated. There is gas, coal, and solar,” Meralco first vice president and head of regulatory management Jose Ronald Valles said, referring to those who participated in the recently concluded pre-bid conference for the CSP.

Bid submission deadline is on Dec. 26.

“The schedule of awarding is maybe last week of December. So we’ll know the results on who will actually submit the bid. Right now, what we have are only those who have submitted expression of interest, so we don’t know yet if these companies will make it to the final round. If they will decide to submit a bid, we do not know that,” Valles said.

The CSP is meant to replace the capacity covered by Meralco’s 2021 power supply agreements with San Miguel units Excellent Energy Resources Inc. and Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. which were terminated earlier this year.

Meralco is the largest electric power distribution company in the country, providing electric service within its franchise area coverage which includes Metro Manila, all of the provinces of Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan, and parts of the provinces of Pampanga, Batangas, Laguna, and Quezon.

The company has a consolidated customer count of 7.8 million as of end-September.