Meralco Powergen in ‘serious’ talks with renewable energy developers

November 5, 2018 | 12:05 am By Victor V. Saulon Sub-editor
https://www.bworldonline.com/meralco-powergen-in-serious-talks-with-renewable-energy-developers/

MERALCO POWERGEN CORP. (MGen) is in “serious” discussions with renewable energy developers to buy into existing projects, including a wind farm with an existing feed-in tariff (FiT) contract with the government, as it trains its sights into clean energy projects.

“Meron na kaming (We have) serious discussions with some developers and we’re also looking at some greenfield [projects] na kami mismo ang magde-develop (that we ourselves will develop),” said Rogelio L. Singson, MGen president and chief executive officer, in a chance interview last week.

Aside from MGen’s long-delayed Atimonan coal-fired power plant project, the company’s focus now is on renewable energy development.

“I don’t think any of the parties we’re talking to have any of the FiT. Kung meron man (If there is one) it’s with the wind project that we’re talking to na may feed-in-tariff,” Mr. Singson said.

Asked about the capacity of the wind farm with an existing FiT, Mr. Singson said: “If I’m not mistaken mga (around) 100 [megawatts]).”

He added that only one project has a secured FiT, or the government scheme to encourage the development of renewable energy by awarding a fixed rate for the power they produce for 20 years.

He declined to name the developers with which the company has ongoing talks, except that their projects are all in Luzon. MGen will be buying into existing projects, he added, without disclosing whether it would take a controlling interest.

“We’re not at this point looking outside Luzon,” he said. “We’re talking to a few developers who are interested in tying up with MGen.”

MGen, a unit of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), is leading the development of three power plants — all coal-fired — either on its own or in partnership with other entities.

Its unit Atimonan One Energy, Inc. (A1E) is building a two-unit ultra supercritical coal-fired power plant, each with a capacity of 600-MW in Atimonan, Quezon.

A1E’s power supply agreement with distribution utility Meralco was submitted to the ERC in April 2016 and had gone through public hearings, technical working group review and assessment of the tariff.

Another unit, San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co., is constructing a 455-MW facility in Mauban, Quezon province. It will be the country’s first supercritical coal-fired power plant. The plant was targeted to be completed in mid-2019.

The third project, a coal-fired power plant under Redondo Peninsula Energy, Inc., has two units, each with a capacity of 300 MW using the circulating fluidized bed technology.

In May, Mr. Singson said MGen was targeting renewable energy (RE) to account for at least 20% of the company’s attributable capacity in the coming years. He said placed a target RE capacity of between 500 MW and 600 MW in the next three to four years.

He had said solar has a “very strong potential” in Luzon amid a tighter window for coal-fired power plants. At that time, he said the company was looking at some of the stranded solar farms that failed to make it to the government’s FiT scheme.