Bid Opening for Meralco's 600 MW CSP for baseload capacity was completed on Tuesday, August 27, with six bidders (out of the eight who initially expressed interest) submitting their bids.
It will be recalled that said CSP was previously subject to a TRO issued by RTC-Taguig, acting on a Complaint filed by Tycoon Enrique Razon's group Prime Energy and the SC 38 Consortium.
Based on court records, Prime Energy and SC 38 challenged Meralco's Terms of Reference for the 600MW CSP, claiming that it did not comply with DOE policy giving preference to indigenous natural gas (ING). Last week, the court dismissed the Complaint for lack of jurisdiction, which allowed Meralco, through its BAC, to resume the activities for the 600 MW CSP.
Meralco Senior Vice President and Regulatory Management Head, Atty. Jose Ronald Valles said that the company was satisfied with the bidding results. "The transparency and competitiveness of MERALCO's bidding process is underscored by the fact that most of the price offers received were lower than the ceiling price set. The winning bidders' offers were at least Php1 lower than the reserved price."
The bid offers of SMC's Masinloc Power Partnership Co Limited for 500MW and Aboitiz Power's GNPD for 100MW were declared the possible best bids with an all-in rate of P5.6015/kWh and P5.7392/kwh, respectively. These rates are way below Meralco's reserved price for the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) set at P7.2609/kWh. Based on official records, winning rates are also much lower than First Gas's current billing for its San Lorenzo Plant, which uses ING, at P7.5471/kWh.
Lower rates are always a welcome relief to customers. According to Atty. Valles, "We are happy that the main objective of the CSP, which is to secure the least cost supply for our customers, has been achieved. We hope there will be no further delays as we work towards immediately signing the PSAs resulting from the 600 MW CSP. We trust that ERC evaluation and approval will also be swift so customers can enjoy these meager rates upon the scheduled delivery date in August 2025."
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