MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) has started bidding for 900 megawatts (MW) of baseload power supply to cover requirements beginning in 2031.
In a statement on Tuesday, the power distributor said it had started the competitive selection process (CSP) after the Department of Energy issued a certificate of conformity on the terms of reference for the proposed power supply agreements.
The 15-year agreement will initially cover 600 MW of supply starting Feb. 26, 2031, followed by another 300 MW beginning Feb. 26, 2032, subject to approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Meralco said.
Power generation companies have until Oct. 15 to submit expressions of interest. A pre-bid conference is scheduled for Nov. 6, while the deadline for bid submissions is Dec. 9.
The latest procurement follows a separate CSP covering 600 MW of baseload supply, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2028 and 2029.
Units of San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp. and Aboitiz Power Corp. (AboitizPower) submitted the lowest offers for that requirement earlier this month.
Mariveles Power Generation Corp. and Sual Power, Inc., both under San Miguel Global Power, offered to supply 200 MW each at P5.3573 and P5.4357 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), respectively, while AboitizPower’s GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. Co. offered 200 MW at P5.5789 per kWh.
The earlier 600-MW procurement covers an initial 300 MW beginning Feb. 26, 2028, followed by another 300 MW starting Feb. 26, 2029.
The bids remain subject to post-qualification, Meralco board approval, and ERC clearance.
Taken together, the two separate CSPs cover 1,500 MW of baseload requirements scheduled for delivery between 2028 and 2032.
Meralco expects electricity demand in its franchise area to continue growing over the long term. In its 2026 Power Supply Procurement Plan, the power distributor projects peak demand to rise from 9,131 MW in 2025 to about 12,698 MW by 2035, equivalent to average annual growth of 3.4%.
Meralco is the country’s largest private electric distribution utility, serving more than 8.1 million customers in Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal, as well as parts of Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, and Quezon.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc.
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