The price offers from the coal plants of San Miguel Corporation and Aboitiz Power Corporation have been declared as best ‘lowest bids’ and prospective winners in the 600-megawatt supply procurement of power utility giant Manila Electric Company.

The lowest acceptable price tenders in the competitive selection process (CSP) of Meralco for its new round of power supply agreements (PSAs) to be underwritten had been those of Masinloc Power Co. Ltd. of the SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. of San Miguel at P5.6015 per kilowatt hour (kWh); and GNPower Dinginin Power Ltd. Co. of the Aboitiz group at P5.7392 per kWh.

In the stacking system that was enforced in the capacity auction, Masinloc emerged as the winner for the supply of 500MW; while GNPower Dinginin will be providing the balance of 100MW in this batch of Meralco’s baseload capacity procurement.

According to Meralco Vice President and Chair of the PSA Bids and Awards Committee Lawrence S. Fernandez, the declared 'best bids' will be subject to 'post qualification process' prior to the award and signing of contracts.

The PSAs to be sealed for the winning offers will have a term of 15 years – with a delivery period commencing on August 26, 2025, or upon the approval of the contract by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Ranked as third lowest offer had been from Mariveles Power Generation Corporation, also of the SMC conglomerate at P6.4017 per kWh for capacity offer of 200MW; and followed by Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. Co. (QPPL) of the EGCO group at P6.5487 per kWh for 400MW capacity.

The higher-end cost offers had been submitted by Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation of the Consunji group at P7.7303 per kWh; while Therma Luzon Inc. of the Aboitiz group put up the other price bid of P8.3388 per kWh.

It was emphasized that the winning offers had been lower than the reserve price set by Meralco –with a headline rate of P6.9537 per kWh; and a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) at P7.2609 per kWh.

Meralco previously scheduled the original auction for this batch of CSP last August 2, but because of a temporary restraining order (TRO) earlier issued by a Taguig regional trial court (RTC), the bid submission deadline had been rescheduled to August 27 when the legal impediments were already resolved.

The utility firm highlighted that the new capacity procurement will plug remaining capacity gap in its baseload supply portfolio, that way, it can spare its customers from strained supply predicaments.

After the signing and award of the power supply deals, a joint filing of the contracts will be undertaken with the ERC before the agreed rates could be passed on in the electric bills of Meralco customers.

The next round of capacity auction being slated by Meralco will be for its 400MW mid-merit capacity requirement, with the tendering process culminating by October 1 this year.