Meralco eyes new power plants in Subic

MANILA, Philippines - Meralco PowerGen Corp., the newly-formed power generation arm of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), is looking at the possibility of putting up new power plants at the Subic Freeport to complement its existing coal-fired facility in the area.

Meralco vice president Angelito Lantin told reporters that they are now studying opportunities to develop a small gas facility as well as renewable energy sources.

“We’re looking at an additional coal plant, a small gas facility and some renewables. There is nothing yet concrete in the pipeline, we are just exploring,” he said.

According to Lantin, they are also planning to put up more power plants in different parts of the country to boost its venture into the power generation business.

“Our mandate is 2,000 megawatts. If it is a small enough plant maybe we can do it by ourselves but if it is big, it is better to have a partner,” he said.

Lantin said Meralco PowerGen is looking at all potential sites in Luzon for its generating plants, which would help improve the region’s power supply amid a projected shortfall within the next five years.

“The site has to be somewhere that is not densely populated, close to a transmission facility to avoid long transmission lines and, depending on the fuel, has to be close to the sea. It depends on a lot of factors,” he said.

Meralco currently, serves over four million customers in a franchise area covering Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Meralco is planning to acquire a majority stake in Aboitiz Power Corp. 600-megawatt coal-fired power facility project in Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

The power distribution company earlier said it expects a major push in its power generation business within this year.

Meralco chief operating officer Oscar Reyes said they hope to start the construction of a 300-megawatt baseload coal-fired power plant within the year and expects to start operations by 2014 or 2015 at the latest.

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