Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said various steps are being made to ensure power supply will be enough despite recent issues with its power supply agreements (PSAs).
Meralco said it is in discussions with San Miguel Corp.’s South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC) after the Court of Appeals (CA) ordered the parties to conduct a negotiation on their PSA.
“We are in discussion with SPPC, we are sending them a letter today in compliance with the directive of Court of Appeals for us to enter into a good faith negotiations to try to settle the active case,” said Ronald Valles, Meralco first vice president and head of regulatory management office, in a briefing on Monday.
SPPC secured from the CA 13th Division, a writ of preliminary injunction in a resolution that was promulgated on Jan. 25, 2023. The CA suspended the continued implementation of the 670 megawatts (MW) PSA with Meralco.
However, the injunction does not terminate the PSA entirely as it allows the parties to negotiate the terms of the agreement.
Meanwhile, Meralco said it is also negotiating with Aboitiz Power Corp. to extend its emergency PSA (EPSA) for the supply of 300 MW baseload capacity from the GNPower Dinginin (GNPD) coal plant.
“We have also requested GNPD for an extension of another one month of their offer but we are trying to negotiate for lower tariff that’s equivalent to 300 MW,” Valles added.
Meralco said the third extension of the EPSA it is seeking with GNPD is supposedly for the period between February 26 to March 25, 2023 and lower than the previous rate of P8.5250 per kilowatt hour.
