Meralco PowerGen enlists new subsidiary as retail supplier arm

The power generation arm of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has separately applied for a retail electricity supplier (RES) license with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) under corporate name Solvre.

This will be Meralco PowerGen’s vehicle to underwrite supply contracts and sell capacity to the contestable customers or that segment which can already choose their suppliers in the restructured electricity sector, according to highly placed sources.

French-sounding corporate entity ‘Solvre’ will exist as an entirely different RES licenseefirm with that of Vantage Energy Solutions and Management, Inc. (Vantage Energy) that was applied for with the regulator as Meralco’s own RES unit.

Meralco PowerGen is the power generation development arm of the country’s biggest distribution utility. The extent of portfolio it is now pushing to construction already hovers at more than 2,000 megawatts.

These include the 500MW coventure with Thai firm’s EGCO Group, the 1,200MW Atimonan coal-fired power project; and the initial 300MW block of the 600MW Subic coal-fired power venture with Aboitiz Group and Taiwan Cogeneration International Corporation as partners.

The initial higher end-target will be for 3,000 megawatts – and the next phases of investments in the company’s blueprint would be its partnership with the Consunji group for a 600-megawatt coal plant in Batangas; and its tie-up with affiliate Global Business Power Corporation for another 600MW coal-fired power plant development in La Union.

Its targeted capacity had been covered by power supply agreements (PSAs) with Meralco, but there would still be fraction that it can sell to contestable end-users under the retail competition and open access (RCOA) phase of the industry.