Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has rescheduled to August 27 this year the final submission of offers for its 600-megawatt baseload capacity sourcing that will be slated for delivery by August next year.

In a new bid bulletin issued on Monday, Aug. 19, Meralco specified that bid submission deadline for this batch of its competitive selection process (CSP) shall be between 8:00 to 9:00am on August 27, 2024.

On its other bid solicitation for 400MW mid-merit capacity, Meralco has scheduled submission of offers on October 1; while pre-bid conference will be help this August 29.

The original bidding date for the 600MW capacity auction had been August 2 this year, but the tendering process was temporarily impeded by a legal skirmish due to a temporary restraining order (TRO) earlier issued by a Taguig regional trial court.

However, the lower chamber eventually dismissed the plea for injunction of the plaintiffs led by Prime Energy of the Malampaya consortium; and the TRO had likewise been voided, hence, Meralco finally secured legal leeway to go ahead with its capacity bidding to be underwritten with corresponding long-term power supply agreement.

At this stage, Meralco is leaning on sustained interest of at least eight (8) prospective bidders for this targeted capacity purchase that shall form part of its baseload power supply requirements so it can spare its customers from the distress of strained electricity services as well as unwarranted rate hikes.

As announced in its pre-bid conference last month, the interested parties in this CSP round include First Gas Power Corporation and First NatGas Power Corp. of the First Gen group; GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co and Therma Luzon Inc. of the Aboitiz group; Mariveles Power Generation Corporation and Masinloc Power Co. Ltd. of the San Miguel group; Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation of the Consunji group; and the only interested party with foreign ownership is Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Co. of the EGCO group of Thailand.

Following the submission of offers, Meralco similarly notified that the opening of bid prices as well as notification of best bids may happen either August 27 or 28, depending on the completion of the opening of pre-qualification document submissions – including those on technical proposals.

“The above schedule may be changed by the BAC-PSA (bids and awards committee- power supply agreement) at any time, without incurring any liability to the bidders. Bidders shall be notified by BAC-PSA of any changes in the indicative schedule through bid bulletins,” Meralco Vice President and BAC-PSA Chairman Lawrence S. Fernandez has stipulated in the newly issued bid bulletin.

The CSP terms for reference (TOR) for this particular capacity purchase emphasized that the PSA to be awarded will have 15-year term – with delivery date specified for August 26, 2025 but carries condition of possible adjustments depending on the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission.

The bidders may opt to offer minimum contract capacity of 150 megawatts – and a stacking system shall be upheld until the entire 600MW procurement will be fully covered.

As set forth in the TOR, “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.”

On pricing, the auction terms require the submission of “total delivered headline rate and total delivered levelized cost of electricity” – and the winning offers must not go beyond the reserve price set by Meralco.