By Myrna M. Velasco
A food manufacturing firm is the latest addition to the roll of power retail clients of Lopez-owned First Gen Corporation, the only power company in the Philippines that clings on to its offer of clean energy solutions.
The company announced that it signed a power supply agreement with General Milling Corporation (GMC), a company which is into food production – and that pact is done within the ambit of Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) policy in the restructured electricity sector.
It was stipulated that under the new supply deal, the Lopez company will supply the electricity needs of GMC’s manufacturing facility in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu – touted as the food firm’s biggest production plant.
The power to be wheeled to the food company will have to come from First Gen’s subsidiary Energy Development Corporation (EDC), of which power generating portfolio are primarily renewable energy sources.
As noted by GMC Executive Vice President Joselito “Toto” Parco, the company opted to renew its supply agreement with EDC “because aside from the pure renewable energy that they provide, we are very satisfied with their service.”
The executive of the food firm likened the contract extension as some sort of “renewal of vows for us.”
The volume of power off-take had not been specified, as well as the pricing agreed upon by the parties – although it can be readily inferred that such had been sealed on very competitive terms.
The retail competition space of the power industry has been igniting fierce contest among power generators – not just in terms of service quality; the offer of cleaner energy source but chiefly on pricing.
For the Cebu-based food manufacturing firm, it has been into providing quality flour and bakery products for a stretch of more than five decades already.
Kicking off commercially with its first milling facility in the 1970s, its operations had since then expanded into animal feeds, corn mill and the manufacturing and sale of consumer goods in the range of food snacks, instant noodles, edible oil and coffee, among others.
Qualified to underwrite power supply contracts under RCOA are end-users with more than 750 kilowatts of consumption – and such process of procurement is done on voluntary basis.