The power generation arm of Manila Electric Co. plans to build 500 megawatts of solar power projects, a top executive said.
Meralco PowerGen Corp. president Rogelio Singson said the solar projects would be a part of the company’s plan to put up 3,000 MW of generating capacity to meet the supply requirements of Meralco.
Singson, however, said the solar power projects faced land availability constraints.
“That is the main concern right now. It is difficult to look for utility scale because for every 1 MW, you need at least 2 hectares. If you start building 100 MW, then you need 200 hectares,” he said.
Singson said finding 200 hectares in a contiguous area was also difficult.
“In the next three to four years, we want to develop maybe at least 500 to 600 MW. It should [represent] at least 20 to 30 percent of MGen capacity,” he said.
Singson said Meralco PowerGen was also looking at other renewable energy projects such as wind and hydro facilities, on top of the company’s existing coal projects.
“We are looking at the development of RE, be it solar, wind or even hydro. I think there is a potential for hydro especially those from National Irrigation Administration,” he said.
Meanwhile, Meralco president Oscar Reyes said the company expected sales volume to grow 4.5 percent this year, slightly slower than the 4.9-percent increase in 2017.
“The way it is trending, we may be around not too far from what we saw last year,” Reyes said after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting.
He said the company posted strong first-quarter sales amid hotter temperature. “We had a very strong first quarter. We grew about 9.2 percent compared to the first quarter of 2017,” Reyes said.
He said Meralco, the country’s biggest power retailer, likely posted slower sales growth in April and May.
“April and May are trending lower. For April 2018 against 2017, growth was in the order of about 3.6 percent and for May, I think what we are seeing is potentially around mid-4 percent [so 4.5 plus or minus]. That could bring down our year to date May sales to a little over 7.5 percent, down from 9.2 percent [a year ago],” Reyes said.
“The reason why it was lower, we found out that April is half a degree centigrade cooler which is unusual because of the summer,” he said.