Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
The power generation
arm of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be injecting P424.2 million worth
of equity investments in initial 210 megawatts of solar projects that will
command total capital outlay of P10.01 billion.
The solar installations
will be placed under corporate vehicle MGen Renewable Energy, Inc. (MGreen), a
subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGen), which in turn is the
investment unit of Meralco into the power generation segment.
“MGreen has secured
equity funding amounting to P424 million that will be used to invest in various
solar projects under development,” the company has stipulated in a statement to
the media.
The equity funding had been funneled to MGreen by parent firm Meralco, based on
the approval of its board of directors on September 30 this year.
The specified
210-megawatt solar developments will be spread across Luzon, including some
that will be traversed by the franchise area of Meralco. There had been no
specific sites or information on joint venture arrangements provided by the
company as of press time.
On the firm’s targeted
1,000MW investment portfolio in the renewable energy (RE) sector over five
years, MGreen will stand as the corporate platform on various ventures on the
RE space – not just in solar, but also in wind and run-of-river hydro
installations.
MGreen’s foray into
renewables, according to MGen President and CEO Rogelio L. Singson is “in line
with company’s commitment to develop large-scale renewable energy projects,”
which he indicated will not be leaning on any subsidies either from the
government or the consumers’ pockets.
Singson opined that “now is the time to focus on building our green energy
capacity and we intend to be a key player in the renewable energy space.”
On the sustainability
game for the energy sector, the MGen chief executive similarly emphasized that
their company will be placing its bet on the contribution of its RE portfolio.
Alongside investment
trajectory on RE capacity build-up, the company asserted that it will also
continue to invest in conventional baseload capacity but it will be leaning on
the more advanced high efficiency, lower emissions (HELE) technologies.
MGen in particular has
several baseload capacity projects in the line-up, but this will only be
concretized once it wins power supply agreements (PSAs) as tendered through the
dictum of the competitive selection process (CSP) policy being set forth by the
government.
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