Meralco, Solar eye baseload power deal
Free of challengers, the Manila Electric Co. or Meralco said Tuesday it will start negotiating with Solar Philippine Batangas Baseload Corporation for its unsolicited proposal to provide the power distributor’s 200-MW baseload energy requirement.
Based on its latest report, the Meralco third-party bids and awards committee confirmed that no challenger showed up during the bid submission deadline yesterday, 10 January.
Since there were no disputes on the first and second rounds of the competitive challenge for the contract, the distribution utility may enter into direct negotiation for the contract capacity requirement, as provided by the Revised CSP Rules.
Once negotiations are complete, Meralco will sign a power supply agreement with the original proponent and seek regulatory approval for the contract.
In search for 200MW
SPBBC offered a P4.65 per kilowatt-hour headline rate at a 100 percent plant capacity factor and a similar rate for the Levelized cost of electricity for 20 years.
The company proposed to source the 200-MW contract capacity and guaranteed output from a 1,800 MW solar project and 1,800 megawatt-hours of battery storage currently under development.
To ensure the availability of a 24/7 supply, SPBBC may also get backup power from other plants in its renewable energy portfolio. It has proposed solar power plants with an energy storage system in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna.
Based on the Terms of Reference of the CSP, offers should cover the full contract capacity, and may be sourced from a single or portfolio of power plants with commercial operations not earlier than February 2019 but not later than March 2024.