Meralco plans to acquire majority stake in Aboitiz Power facility in Subic

MANILA, Philippines - Power retailing giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is planning to acquire a majority stake in Aboitiz Power Corp.’s 600-megawatt coal-fired power facility at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, APC said its affiliate, Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy), has been informed that Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MPGC), the power generation arm created by Meralco, wants to participate in the construction and operation of two 300-MW coal-fired power plants in Subic.

RP Energy is a joint venture formed by APC’s wholly-owned subsidiary Therma Power Inc. (TPI) and Taiwan Cogeneration International Corp. (TCIC) for the construction and operation of the proposed Subic coal-fired power plant.

“MPGC is expected to take a controlling interest in RP Energy, with TPI and TCIC owning the remaining stake equally,” APC said.

APC earlier said it would be spending about P33 billion for the construction of Subic coal-fired facility. It is scheduled to bid out the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the power plant which is targeted for completion by 2013.

Meralco, for its part, earlier said it expects a major push in its power generation business within this year.

Meralco chief operating officer Oscar Reyes earlier said they hope to start the construction of a 300-MW baseload coal-fired power plant within the year, expected to start operations by 2014 at the earliest.

He said this would be in time for the additional capacity that would be needed by the Luzon grid by 2015.

The coal-run power facility, expected to be located north of Metro Manila, will need an investment of $2 million per MW or $600 million over the next three years.

Reyes said they would be undertaking the project possibly with a local and a regional partner.

After building the baseload plant, he said they would be putting up peaking plants.

“We’ll be focusing on our first project, the coal-fired power plant that would likely involve local and regional players. Beyond that, we’re looking at baseload merit and peaking plants, which would mean either coal, LNG or aero-derivatives,” he said.