Conglomerates San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Aboitiz Power Corp. joined four other companies that submitted expression of interest to bid for Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) 1,800 megawatts of power supply.
Meralco, through its bids and awards committee, earlier called on interested companies to participate in the competitive selection process (CSP) and gave them until Nov. 13 to submit their expression of interest.
San Miguel and Aboitiz Power executives confirmed the submission of expression of interest, while other sources said First Gen Corp. also submitted documents. The other three companies were not disclosed as of press time.
Meralco first vice president and regulatory management head Jose Ronald Valles said they could not speculate how many bidders would submit an actual bid.
“Remember that the COC [certificate of conformity] of these 1,800 [MW] did not change. The last time we bid this out, there were more than three who participated in the bidding, so we expect them to express their interest to participate in the same bidding. [If] they are not going to bid for the entire 1,800, they can bid for a portion,” Valles said.
Among the interested bidders, Aboitiz Power offered to supply 600 MW from GN Power Dinginin.
The CSP aims to replace the capacity covered by Meralco’s 2021 PSAs with Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (EERI) and Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. (MPPCL) which were terminated earlier this year.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved the termination of contracts in October.
Meralco is pursuing the CSP to meet the growing demand of its customers starting next year. It also plans to conduct a separate CSP for 1,200 MW of baseload capacity.
Meralco’s 1,200-MW baseload CSP will also replace other terminated contracts.