Following two failed biddings due to lack of challengers, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has decided to pursue a "negotiated deal" with Solar Philippine Batangas Baseload Corporation’s (SPBBC) on its targeted procurement of 200-megawatt baseload capacity that will be generated purely from renewable energy (RE) resource.
“Meralco is set to proceed with negotiations for its 200-MW baseload energy requirement following the failure of the second round of competitive selection process (CSP) for SPBBC’s unsolicited proposal,” the power firm has announced in a media statement.
A baseload capacity in the supply portfolio of a power utility entails 24-hour availability; and since the preferred technology installation will be RE-based, this requires that even replacement power will also be coming from RE generation.
According to Meralco, the targeted frame of development of SPBBC to supply that scale of baseload power would be 1,800 megawatts (MW) of solar farm plus 1,800-megawatt hour (MWh) of battery energy storage that shall be sited in the provinces of Batangas, Cavite and Laguna.
The utility firm emphasized that the planned RE supply contracting from the Solar Philippines’ subsidiary company “will provide the capacity using solar and battery in compliance with Meralco's renewable portfolio standards (RPS) requirement.”
The RPS is a policy being enforced by the Department of Energy (DOE) and that mainly requires participant-distribution utilities (DUs), like Meralco, to source prescribed percentage of their supply from RE-generated capacities.
The unsolicited offer of SPBBC covers a 20-year power supply agreement (PSA) that will kick off in 2024; and that shall be at a rate of P4.65 per kilowatt hour (kWh) with 100-percent capacity factor.
“Once negotiations are completed, Meralco will enter into a PSA with the original proponent and seek regulatory approval for the contract,” the power firm stressed.
As stipulated in the January 10 report of Meralco’s third party bids and awards committee (TPBAC), it “did not receive any competitive bids from any challenger during the bid submission deadline on January 10.”
The TPBAC, thus, propounded that “since there are no outstanding dispute on the first and second rounds of 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.”
The CSP is a bidding mechanism to be enforced by DUs in their supply sourcing to ensure they get the least cost power supply contracts.