Meralco PowerGen Corporation, the power investment arm of Manila Electric Company, is eyeing to secure approval from the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) on the triarchy deal that it sealed for the $3.3 billion integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Batangas province.

MGen President and CEO Emmanuel V. Rubio indicated that the deal “is undergoing PCC approval. The notice of sufficiency was issued. We expect to get the approval probably by around September if ever, but we don't see any issues with receiving the approval.”

He qualified that the regulatory approval may also serve as the anchor to any subsequent decision whether or not the partners will proceed on expanding the capacity of the Excellent Energy Resources Inc. (EERI) or Ilijan phase 2 plant, which currently is of 1,200-megawatt capacity.

Rubio emphasized “we're still waiting for notice if it will proceed to the second phase or first phase is actually enough.” The EERI project was blueprinted for up to 1,800MW capacity.

MGen is majority shareholder with 60% equity in Chromite Gas Holdings, its joint venture company with Therma NatGas Power Inc. of Aboitiz Power in the LNG tie-up with SMC Global Power Holdings of the San Miguel group. In the Chromite Gas JV, Aboitiz Power has 40% stake.

Then through Chromite Gas Holdings, the Meralco-Aboitiz Power tandem secured 67% shares in the integrated Ilijan phases 1 and 2 gas facilities of San Miguel, while the latter just maintained 33% equity in the venture. The acquisition also covered the LNG import facility that had been under the ownership of Linseed Field Corporation.

Rubio noted the PCC approval will serve as “the main trigger for us to take over or for the joint venture to actually commence.”

Once the go-signal of the competition body is secured, he expounded that the next steps will be financial closing, which is also anticipated by the company to happen within the year.

On top of that, the MGen chief executive conveyed that the consortium is awaiting the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the power supply agreement (PSA) to be delivered by the EERI plant; while the PSA for the existing Ilijan plant had already been approved.

Relative to that regulatory matter, he stipulated that the consortium has already filed motion for clarification on the assignment of just 910MW in the PSA, instead of the entire capacity of the plant.

The additional capacity from the EERI plant is expected as a critical capacity addition to the country’s power supply by 2025, so it can be spared from the recurrence of red and yellow alerts which mainly distressed Luzon grid this year.