San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said its power unit, San Miguel Global Power (SMGP) has offered to make the full capacity of its 1,200 megawatts (MW) Ilijan natural gas-fired power plant available to Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) for a fraction of its capital cost to help keep electricity prices as low as possible for consumers.
In a statement, Ramon Ang, SMC president, said the offer will only cost Meralco a minimal P1 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in capital recovery fee or half of its capital cost on the facility.
Ang said under the offer, incremental power supply costs from such capacity for households may be cut down significantly compared to prevailing costs from coal power generation.
SMC added SMGP, through subsidiary South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC), had initial discussions with Meralco, as both firms want to help consumers weather rising commodity prices.
“As we have said in the past, we will continue to look for ways to help make sure consumers will still have some protection from the effects of skyrocketing global fuel prices. This is one of the best and most direct ways we can show solidarity with our people in this time of crisis,” Ang said.
SMC added it is also offering to help source the fuel for the Ilijan facility whether from its own allocation of Malampaya gas or liquid fuel which Meralco will pay for.
Ang said that SMC Global Power is also willing to work with Meralco in using its 70 petajoules banked gas acquired from the Philippine National Oil Co. at a cost much lower than the prevailing cost of coal power generation to provide the power distributor with the flexibility to manage its overall power generation costs.
Ang said SMC also expects the completion of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal facility it has tolled by March next year.
SMC contracted the facility to receive, store and re-gassify commercial LNG.
