At least eight companies are eyeing to corner the 600-megawatt capacity that is slated for auction by power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to beef up its supply portfolio starting August next year.

In a pre-bid conference on Thursday (July 4), the Filipino-owned companies which turned up and raised their respective concerns on the bid process had been: First Gas Power Corporation, First NatGas Power Corp, GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co., Mariveles Power Generation Corporation, Masinloc Power Co. Ltd., Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Co., Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation and Therma Luzon Inc.

The bid submission date for this batch of capacity procurement by Meralco will be on August 2 this year, as specified in the ‘invitation to bid’ issued by its bids and awards committee.

According to the auction terms of reference (TOR), “the minimum offered contract capacity per bidder shall be at least 150 megawatts (net capacity).”

The contract duration will be for 15 years; and the operations effective date for capacity delivery is set for August 26, 2025; although there is a condition that it is subject to the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission.

On the price offer, it was stated that “a bidder shall submit a bid price indicating its total delivered headline rate and total delivered levelized cost of electricity.”

Further, Meralco emphasized that “if the bidders’ total offered contract capacities go beyond the required contract capacity, the bidder that fills up the last stack - referred to as the marginal bid offer - shall have its offered contract capacity reduced accordingly up to the extent of the required contract capacity at its proposed tariff.”

The power supply agreement, it was noted, is of a ‘physical nature’ of contract, hence, there is a specified plant that shall deliver the contracted capacity to Meralco.

It was similarly stipulated that there shall be “separate delivery points for each power plant generating unit as registered with the WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market).”

Meralco expounded that “the delivery points should be interconnected with the Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao grid upon OED (operations effective date) and able to export power to the Luzon grid upon OED.”

For the outage allowance, bidders had been apprised that “scheduled and forced outage allowance shall not exceed the allowable planned and unplanned outages for similar plant technology,” as anchored on ERC Resolution No.10 that was issued in 2020.