Meralco Power wants to buy all the electricity generated by Subic power plant

By Ted P. Torres (The Philippine Star) Updated July 23, 2011 12:00 AM  MANILA, Philippines - The Meralco Power Generation (MPG), a subsidiary of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), wants to buy all the electricity generated by the RP Energy 600-megawatts (MW) coal-fired power plant at the Subic Bay Free Port. MPG president Oscar S. Reyes said Meralco would want to buy and sell the same to the Luzon Power grid. “We would want to buy all the power generated from the 600-MW power plant,” Reyes said. Reyes represented MPC in the formal signing of the joint agreement between the three major stakeholders of RP Energy, including Aboitiz Power Corp., and the Taiwan Cogeneration International Corp. (TCIC). Nonetheless, RP Energy was committed to be onstream by 2015. Construction of the clean coal-feed power plant starts with Phase 1, resulting in the construction of two 150-MW plants by end 2014. The following year, the next two 150-MW plants would be completed. The estimated total project cost was placed at $1.28 billion. Reyes also indicated that they were already holding exploratory talks with banks that would syndicate the project financing portion. “Nothing is final, we are still talking,” Reyes, who is also the chief operating officer of Meralco, said, adding that what is definite is that it will be a purely domestic udertaking. Present during the formal contract signing were several banks including BDO Capital and Trust Corp., the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), and the Philippine National Bank (PNB).