Manila Electric Co., the biggest retailer of electricity, is confident the second round of bidding for a 20-year, 1,200-megawatt base-load power supply contract will be successful.
“Meralco is confident that the next round of bidding will be successful once again, as this will contribute to adding much-needed capacity to the Luzon Grid, as well as bring power rates further down for the benefit of our consumers,” Meralco first vice president and head of regulatory management Jose Ronald Valles said in a statement.
Meralco said the greenfield plant supplying the full 1,200-MW contract capacity had a scheduled commercial operations date of September 2024.
The Third-Party Bids and Awards Committee created by a Department of Energy circular will conduct a pre-bid conference on January 20, 2020, with bid submission and opening to take place on February 17, 2020.
“Meralco continues to work with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to ensure the completion of the succeeding biddings,” Valles said.
He said Meralco remained committed to signing partnerships that could deliver competitive electricity to customers.
Similar to the first 1,200-MW and 500-MW competitive selection process, the upcoming CSP bidding will be done in accordance with the DOE circular requiring distribution utilities to procure power through a CSP.
The CSP will be administered by the TPBAC.
“We assure the public that Meralco’s Terms of Reference (TOR) for the second invitation to bid are pro-consumer, transparent, and will result in the least cost, as prescribed in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA). We wish to thank the DOE and DOE Secretary Cusi for the leadership and guidance in the conduct of the recent successful, historic CSP last September, and we hope to successfully complete the succeeding CSPs for 2020,” Valles said.
Meralco’s TBAC set the submission of expression of interest on January 13. It will declare a failure of the bidding process if the submission of expression of interest is less than two.
“Offered contract capacity per bidder shall only be by discrete 600 MW (net) blocks. An interested bidder shall submit a bid price containing its headline rate (proposed price using 2020 indices and prices) and its levelized cost of electricity (LCOE),” the company said.