By
Lenie Lectura - October 21, 2019
POWERSOURCE First
Bulacan Solar Inc. (PFBSI), which is partly owned by MGen Renewable Energy Inc.
(MGreen), has tapped Sumec Complete Equipment & Engineering Co. Ltd. to
construct a 50-megawatt (MW) solar power facility in San Miguel, Bulacan.
An engineering,
procurement and construction contract for the solar power project
was signed between the two firms last Friday.
MGreen holds a
40-percent interest in PFBSI. Other shareholders are PowerSource Global
Holdings Corp. (36 percent) and Singapore’s Sunseap International Pte. Ltd. (24
percent).
MGreen is the
renewable-energy subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation arm
of Meralco. It plans to develop large-scale solar, wind and hydropower
projects that will provide reliable, environment-friendly power at competitive
prices without the need for subsidy.
The P4.25-billion
Bulacan project is the company’s first solar investment, according to MGen
President and CEO Rogelio L. Singson.
“We are committed to
undertake 1,000 MW of renewable-energy projects in the next five to seven
years. This start is one of the lego pieces that will make a thousand,” Singson
said during the contract signing last week.
The power to be
produced from PFBSI will be sold to Meralco under an approved 20-year
power-supply agreement (PSA) for P4.69 per kilowatt hour (kWh), subject to
2-percent annual escalation.
The rate, the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) has said, is “reasonable” because the PSA underwent
the competitive selection process. Even with the application of the 2-percent
annual escalation, the rate of P4.69 per kWh is “still significantly lower than
the prevailing feed-in-tariff [FiT] rate and most of the approved rates for
solar power plants.”
From P4.69 per kWh, the
rate will go up to P5.7516 per kWh on the 20th year. The ERC said this is still
lower than the prevailing FiT rate of P8.69 per kWh for solar.
The ERC told Meralco it
cannot pass on to consumers any additional charges due to interest rates or
penalties imposed by PFBSI under the PSA. It, however, allowed Meralco to pass
on to its consumers any benefit it availed of from excess energy of the PSA.
The 20-year term of the
PSA will not be extended, the ERC said.
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