Meralco seeks partners for new power projects

MANILA, Philippines – Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen) is looking for partners to build new power plants such as coal, gas, wind and hydropower to meet its 3,000-megawatt (MW) target portfolio.

MGen is targeting to build 3,000 MW of attributable capacity through a mix of brownfield and greenfield developments and acquisitions, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) president Oscar Reyes said.

“We have expanded our pipeline of partnership and collaboration opportunities to ensure that our aspiration of 3,000 MW of new power plant-builds of mixed fuel types comes into fruition,” he said.

MGen is the power generating unit of power distribution giant Meralco.

To get closer to its 3,000 MW target, Reyes said MGen is in discussions with other parties for new coal, gas, wind, hydropower plants.

The company official said it is not closing its doors on developing new coal plants but the management is “sensitive” to calls of the public and government to stop building coal plants.

“There are some replacements (done in existing power plants). There will also be additional (new coal plants), depending on how our discussions are going. But we have to see since we want to also have visibility on gas side,” Reyes said.

He said the company is looking at 1,000 MW for gas, 100 MW for hydropower and 50-100 MW for wind.

“In terms of gas, you want to look at around 1,000 MW, which can be phased,” Reyes said.

“For hydro, we’re looking at relatively significant pumped hydro. Aside from that, we’re working on a run-of-river as well,” he said.

Currently, MGen is working with several partners to build the 455-MW San Buenaventura Power Ltd. (SBPL) project in Quezon; the 300-MW initial phase of Redondo Peninsula Energy (RP Energy) project in Subic, Zambales; and the 2x600-MW Atimonan One Energy project in Quezon.