P3.9-B savings seen from emergency Meralco power deal
Pangilinan-led Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is seeking regulatory approval for a 200-megawatt (MW) energy power supply deal, with the firm expecting about P3.88 billion in consumer savings.
In a briefing, Jose Ronald Valles, Meralco senior vice-president and head of its regulatory management, said the power distributor giant was forced to secure another energy agreement as Ayala-led ACEN “ceased supplying to Meralco covering 200 MW of its baseload capacity.”
Meralco and ACEN had implemented their deals in 2019. Then ACEN terminated their supply agreements in November 2024 following “financial losses brought about by the CIC (change in circumstances)…”
He said Meralco had sought proposals from various power suppliers. Only six firms submitted, namely Mariveles Power Generation Corp., Sual Power, Inc. (SPI), Southwest Luzon Power, First Natural Gas, Therma South Luzon, and South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation.
SPI provided the lowest offer at P5.05 per kilowatt hour (kWh), according to the official. The company, a subsidiary of San Miguel Global Power (SMGP), operates the 1,294-MW Sual coal-fired thermal power plant in Pangasinan.
Since the deal was entered under an emergency power supply agreement, Meralco was allowed to immediately deploy the needed electricity late last month, as consumers were exposed to the volatile prices of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
Valles said the supply agreement would run until Jan. 25, 2026.
“So this is a guaranteed supply without any outage allowance,” he said.
A joint application from Meralco and SPI was posted on the website of the Energy Regulatory Commission, where the parties showed the potential savings of about P3.88 billion.
They said the committed rate from SPI was cheaper by about P2.2281 per kWh, as costs from WESM were estimated at P7.3781 per kWh.
Meralco’s franchise area covers Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and select areas in Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.
On Monday, Meralco reported an all-time high in earnings in 2024 reaching P45.1 billion. Meralco’s distribution business continued to contribute the biggest chunk of core profit, reaching P28.1 billion. This was as energy sales went up by 6 percent to 54,325-gigawatt hours.
