San Miguel Energy, Quezon electric co-op sign supply contract

Business Mirror
SUNDAY, 02 OCTOBER 2011 17:20 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA


SAN Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC)— the power arm of San Miguel Corp.—has recently entered into a five-year supply contract with Quezon Electric Cooperative (Quezon Electric).
Beginning December this year, SMEC said it will provide about 10 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Quezon Electric.


SMEC will sources its electricity from its independent power-producer contracts it acquired from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM).


SMEC recently signed supply contracts with the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative Inc. (INEC) and Sorsogon II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Soreco-II) to provide power for them.


INEC said it found SMEC’s proposal favorable to INEC and customers.


Based on the SMEC’s petitioned with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), it proposed to supply INEC’s electricity at P4.60 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) or lower by around P0.01/(kWh).


INEC operate light and power service in the municipalities of Adams, Bacarra, Badoc, Bangui, Banna, Burgos, Carasi, Currimao, Dingras, Dumalneg, Marcos, Nueva Era, Pagudpud, Paoay, Pasuquin, Piddig, Pinili, San Nicolas, Sarrat, Solsona, Vintar, and the cities of Laoag and Batac, all in the province of Ilocos Norte.


SMEC said it will also provide electricity to Soreco-II, which distributes electricity to the municipalities of Bacon, Barcelona, Castilla, Donsol, Gubat, Pilar, Prieto-Diaz, and Sorsogon City in the province of Sorsogon.


Under the supply contract, SMEC will supply the Soreco-II’s power requirements until 2012 at a rate of P5.19/kWh.


In their respective regulatory filing to the ERC, INEC and Soreco II’s deal with SMEC would include a monthly cost-adjustment mechanism to reflect the latter’s power-generation cost to factor the price of coal and foreign-currency exchange fluctuations.


SMEC said the supply contracts have yet to be approved by the ERC.


SMEC is the independent power-producer administrator of the contract capacity of the 1,294-MW Sual coal-fired power plant, which is located in Pangasinan.


(Paul Anthony Isla)