San Miguel’s Limay Power advances in supply bid for Meralco

POWER DISTRIBUTOR Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced on Tuesday that Limay Power, Inc., a unit of San Miguel Corp. (SMC), is set to undergo post-qualification evaluation for its 400-megawatt (MW) supply bid.

“Of the three bidders that expressed interest to participate in the competitive selection process (CSP), only two submitted their qualification documents,” the power distributor said in a statement, referring to Limay Power, Inc. and Masinloc Power Co., Ltd., both subsidiaries of San Miguel Global Power Holdings, the power arm of SMC.

Limay Power offered a rate of P6.2708 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), inclusive of valueadded tax (VAT) and line rental, for the entire 400-MW baseload requirement.

Meanwhile, Masinloc Power offered P6.2957 per kWh, inclusive of VAT and line rental, for a capacity of 195 MW.

Both offers are compliant with the P6.3512 per kWh reserve price set for the bidding, Meralco said.

Meralco said that Limay Power’s bid would undergo post-qualification evaluation for approval its board of directors before issuing a notice of award.

In a related development, Meralco plans to file joint motions for price adjustment with ACEN Corp., pending its agreement, following notices from the latter regarding its claim of losses due to increases in fuel costs.

Jose Ronald V. Valles, Meralco’s first vice-president and head of its regulatory management, said on Monday that the company received notices of “changes in circumstances (CIC)” from ACEN on Feb. 1, reflecting the final amounts of its claims totaling P2.5 billion.

Mr. Valles said that ACEN has a claim for baseload of about P2.2 billion and for mid-merit of P329.65 million. These costs originate from its coal power plant from South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (SLTEC), a third-party generator, and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

The CIC covers the period from January to December 2022.

He said that the “specific triggering event” was the steep climb of coal prices caused by Indonesia’s coal export ban, exacerbated by the RussianUkraine conflict.

The Meralco official said, however, that the claimed amount will only be limited to the portion corresponding to the fuel cost of energy sourced from the SLTEC plant and a proposed recovery period of six months.

“After validating the amount of the claims from ACEN, we arrived at a muchreduced amount of P706 million, the total amount already from the baseload and midmerit,” Mr. Valles said.

If approved, the rate impact for the six-month cost recovery period will be approximately a four-centavo increase in the generation charge.

Sought for comment, a representative from ACEN said that the company “has not yet received any response from Meralco regarding its notice of change in circumstances.”

Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.

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