Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is offering the lowest power rate to Visayas electric cooperatives at P2.95 per kilowatt-hour from its portfolio of power projects, the cheapest ever proposal to coops in the area.
San Miguel president Ramon Ang said the company was set to sign a competitive selection process with a Visayas electric cooperative for 90 megawatts of capacity.
“A power distributor in the Visayas called me and asked to buy power from us. I quoted P2.95 and the basis for that is P52.30 exchange rate and coal at $75 per ton,” Ang said.
He said the Visayas electric cooperative, which he did not name pending the signing of the agreements, would save as much as P2 billion annually.
“They were very happy because they said that is very cheap considering that they buy today at P6. This coop, if they buy from us, he will save P2 billion a year,” Ang said.
Ang said San Miguel was prepared to compete with the offer of other power generators.
“We offered P2.95. I told him we will compete in the Visayas. It will go to CSP, we cannot sell if we do not go through CSP (competitive selection process),” the executive said.
The Energy Department has required power distributors and electric cooperatives to bid out their power requirements under the CSP.
“Why will I offer high? I will offer low. We will really compete otherwise the power plant will not run because there is no buyer. We will incur losses, so we will really (be) aggressively compete,” Ang said.
Ang said the electric cooperative has asked for time to come out with the agreement because of some commitments.
“I’m sure they will come back to us because of our P2.95 per kWh offer. The one buying 90 MW, they were getting it at P5.95 almost P6,” he said.