Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- March 7, 2019 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The power
generating unit of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is exploring the development
of solar-hybrid projects outside its franchise area.
Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen) is
also looking at co-developing large scale hybrid solar and storage projects.
This is part of its focus on a
portfolio of utility scale solar generation projects to supply the Luzon grid
and Meralco customers with competitive tariff. MGen president Rogelio Singson
said they are looking at about 150-200 megawatts (MW) in capacity.
“We cannot disclose at
this time because of non-disclosure agreements (NDA) but most sites we are
assessing are in Luzon,” he said.
The company believes solar
generation will form an important part of the energy mix going forward, and
will be a growing source of generation without any subsidy.
He said discussions are ongoing with
a number of existing project developers for potential partnerships.
“We’re very confident solar will be
a major source of power within the next three to five years,” Singson said.
MGen was mandated to actively pursue
renewables, particularly solar and wind technology to disrupt its own legacy
distribution business.
It earlier said it was eyeing to
partner with developers of two to three wind projects as part of boosting the
group’s renewable energy portfolio.
One of the projects is with Island
Wind Energy Corp., which is developing the 151.2-MW Talim wind power project in
Talim Island, Binangonan and Cardona, Rizal.
So far, Meralco has existing
renewable energy investments under Spectrum which formally signalled the
group’s entry into the renewable energy space by developing rooftop and
utility-scale solar photovoltaic projects to meet the requirements of
commercial, industrial and residential customers.
The subsidiary has over 10 MW of
solar portfolio, which includes the 2.5 MW Tanauan solar project of cigarette
manufacturer PMFTC Inc. at its Batangas factory—its single biggest project in
its portfolio.
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