MANILA, Philippines — The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will move to negotiate the contract for its 200-megawatt (MW) baseload energy requirement after no challengers emerged from the second round of competitive selection process (CSP) for the unsolicited proposal of Solar Philippine Batangas Baseload Corp. (SPBBC).
Meralco’s third-party bids and awards committee (TPBAC) reported that it did not receive any competitive bids from any challenger during the bid submission deadline yesterday.
This marked the second time that there have been no challenges to SPBBC’s 200-MW unsolicited proposal.
Since there are no outstanding dispute on the first and second rounds of competitive challenge for the contract, the TPBAC said Meralco may enter into direct negotiation for the contract capacity requirement, as provided by the revised CSP rules.
SPBBC’s offer involves a 20-year contract starting 2024 at P4.65 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) at 100 percent capacity factor.
“Once negotiations are completed, Meralco will enter into a power supply agreement with the original proponent and seek regulatory approval for the contract,” the power distributor said.
The CSP forms part of Meralco’s sourcing activities that would ensure availability of reliable, sufficient, and cost-competitive power for its customers.
SPBBC earlier secured the original proponent status (OPS) for its proposal to supply Meralco with up to 200-MW of baseload capacity for 20 years.
With the OPS, SPBBC’s offer will be subject to competitive challenge, with the company having the right to match any comparative proposal.
The 200-MW contract capacity and guaranteed output will be sourced by SPBBC from its 1,800 MW solar project with 1,800 MWh of battery storage currently under development.
To ensure the availability of 24/7 supply, SPBBC may also get back-up power from other plants in its renewable energy portfolio.
The company has proposed solar power plants with energy storage system in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna.