Meralco secures 300-MW emergency supply from GNPower

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has secured a 300-megawatt (MW) emergency power supply to partially cover the capacity it lost after its supply deal with San Miguel’s South Premier Power Corp. (SPPC) was subjected to a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO).

In a statement on Thursday, Meralco said it executed an emergency power supply agreement (EPSA) with Aboitiz-led GNPower Dinginin Ltd.

Under the EPSA, GNPower will supply 300 MW baseload capacity starting December 25, 2022 until January 25, 2022.

“This will partially replace the 670 MW capacity under Meralco’s power supply agreement with SPPC, which was subjected to a TRO issued by the Court of Appeals,” Meralco said.

Last week, San Miguel announced that SPPC is ceasing its 670-megawatt (MW) power supply agreement (PSA) with Meralco after the Court of Appeals issued a TRO suspending the PSA for 60 days.

The CA decision stemmed from SPPC’s petition asking for temporary relief after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) rejected its pleas, together with San Miguel Energy Corp., and Meralco to hike generation charge amid higher prices for coal and natural gas materials used to produce electricity.

The ERC, however, said the agreed price in the PSA is fixed by nature and the grounds for increase cited by SPPC and Meralco were not among the exceptions that would allow for price adjustment

Meanwhile, Meralco EPSA with GNPOwer has a rate of P5.96 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), “which will lessen Meralco’s exposure to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and in turn partly shield its customers from volatile and potentially higher generation costs.”

“Meralco exhausts all measures to continue supplying its customers with sufficient and reliable power, while mitigating the impact of the TRO to its customers,” it said.

Meralco earlier said the impact of the cessation of supply deal with SPPC will be felt by customers in the January billing month.

The TRO compelled Meralco to source from WESM to cover the supply it lost, which accounted for 12% of its total requirement.

ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta earlier said that Meralco customers consuming 200 kilowatt-hours may expect “P60 to P80 additional” amount in their bills following the suspension of the Meralco-SPPC supply deal.

Meralco has also asked SPPC to shoulder the higher power cost that looms due to their cancelled agreement.—AOL, GMA Integrated News