MGen eyes Malaysia as next market for expansion

Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen) of billionaire Manuel Pangilinan is revving up its regional expansion, with Malaysia as its next power destination.

As its chair Pangilinan expects the next five years to be MGen’s “golden years,” the company is fueled to further ratchet up its business beyond local shores.

MGen president and CEO Emmanuel Rubio said they are seeing opportunities in Malaysia, as the market anticipates to house more and larger data centers. Since these facilities have high-performance storage and computing equipment, they require a lot of electricity.

“There are opportunities for green development, and a new plant that’s a brownfield.

“Brownfield in a way that the site is available. It used to house a plant, but now it’s been decommissioned. But there’s a site,” he told reporters in a roundtable discussion last week.

Rubio said that Malaysia alone hopes to attract 8,000 megawatts (MW) of new capacity.

Asked how much of that MGen is targeting, he said hitting the same scale of its operations in Singapore would be “ideal.”

Singapore presence

Through subsidiary PacificLight Power Pte. Ltd., MGen has about 900 MW of capacity in Singapore’s Jurong Island, as of end-June.

PacificLight also secured a deal to build a 600-MW gas-fired facility, with commercial operations eyed by early 2029.

It was not made clear if MGen has already initiated talks with a potential partner in Malaysia. But Rubio said they would seek a local investor.

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MGen’s entry into the Malaysian market may push through by 2028, the executive added.

As of the end of August, MGen’s diversified portfolio in the Philippines and Singapore had a net saleable capacity of 5,067.9 MW.

The group is also behind a massive solar park in Luzon, touted to become the world’s largest solar facility.

In five years, the group expects its portfolio to grow further to 10,346 MW.