Meralco may buy 100MW from GNPower Ltd Co

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) may buy 100 megawatts (MW) from the planned 600-MW coal-fired power facility of GNPower Ltd. Co. 

GNPower is also the first retail electricity supplier (RES) licensee by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). 

"We are considering the offer of GNPower. That would be for 100 MW," Meralco chairman and CEO Manuel M. Lopez told reporters over the weekend.

 Lopez said there is a committee in Meralco that is now looking into the proposal of GNPower. 

"We believe that there is proposal coming in.  We will look at it once the committee submits it to us," he said.

With the ERC’s issuance of a supplier’s license to GNPower, the power firm  can now legally engage in marketing activities for its retail electricity supply business and secure supply contracts with prospective end-users. 

The license was approved subject to GNPower’s continuing compliance with the guidelines for the issuance of licenses to Retail Electricity Suppliers  (RES), as amended, and promulgated by the ERC on Feb. 1, 2006 and the terms and conditions attached to the said license.  

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), particularly Section 29, mandates the ERC to issue licenses to electricity suppliers that will operate in the contestable market, which comprises end-users who will soon have a choice of an electricity supplier.

 GNPower is a limited partnership registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 1, 1997. 

 The partnership was formed by Power Partners Ltd. Co. and PMR Holding Corp. as general and limited partners, respectively.  

It has a 600MW clean-coal  fired  power  plant currently being developed near the town of Mariveles , Bataan . 

 The construction of said power plant is expected to commence in mid-2007 with planned commercial operation by the third quarter of 2010.

 According to Lopez, "We are waiting for the final decision of the ERC on the incentives for new power contracts that DUs may enter into."