MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019 jh] Duterte admin, Meralco lauded for ensuring stable power supply CCl eh bar tel Ue) AFORMER congressman and his group have laud- ‘ed the Duterte adminis- tration and the Manila Electtic Company (Mer- alco) for the recent suc- cessful competitiveselec- tion process or bidding for the 1,500 megawatts (MW) and another 500 MWs supply of electrici- ty, Former Alyansangmga GrupongHaliging Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan (Agham) party-listRep. Angelo Pal- mones said the Duterte administration through the Department of Energy (DoE) in partnership with Meralco has been doing good to ensure a stable power supply. We stongly support and praise the DoE, led by Secretary AlfonsoCusi, for issuing the 2018 DOE Cir- cular on Competitive Se- lection Process (CSP), which was upheld by the Supreme Court. We thank Secretary Cusiforimmedi- ately implementing the Supreme Court decision, and for closely overseeing theMeralcobidding/com- petitive selection process. Ultimately, webelieve that the CSP process will cut downthegenerationcharge of electricity rates,” said Palmones who returned to hisfirstloveasbroadcaster of dzRH. AGHAMalsohighlight- ced the efforts of the distri- bution utility, pointing out that “thanking Meralco for conducting afairand trans- parentbidding /CSP in ac- cordance with the 2018 DOE Circular, which re- sultedin theawardofPSAs to Phinma, SMEC and SPCC on basis of genera- tioncharges thatweremuch lower than currently pre- vailing generation charges from gas and coal power generation companies.” ~ On September 9, Meral- coinformed the publicthat PHINMA Energy Corpo- ration, San Miguel Energy Corporation and South Premiere Power Corpora- tionwere declared thebest bids for the 1,200 MW con- tract capacity, to supply Meralco for a term of 10 years, OnSeptember 11, itwas announced that the Best Bids for 500 MW of mid- merit capacity fora term of fiveyearswerethoseofFirst Gen Hydro Power, Phinma Fnergy andSouth Premiere, Palmones continued lauding the government's CSP, byexplaining “it was very encouraging to see Metal for cari a thebids willbe lower than currentgenerationcharges through the mechanism of a sealed reserve LCOE cap, which was lower than prevailing gen- eration charges. Infact, the bids of Phinna, SMEC and SPCCwereevenlowerthan Meralco’s reserve LCOE cap,thus proving that the Meralco bidding created a very price competitive at- mosphere which resonates actoss all bidders.” “Asreported by media, the resulting prices from the CSP are significantly lower than their average generation cost today of around P 5.88 per kWh (VATinclusive). And based onthenews, alongwith the results of first sticcessful CSP, consumers are pro- jected to enjoy total sav- ings of around P13.86 bil: lion per year, or a rate re- duction ofP0.41 perkWh,” said Palmones. The group expressed support for the CSP and the results of the process, saying that “from a con: sumer group perspective, weare confident that these new contracts will ulti- mately lead to the much- needed additional power supply to address our growing demand in the country. Moreover, thisisa big step in achieving the country’s objective to in- crease supply at lower costs. The bid prices sub- mitted were pro-consum- ets. Based on reports, Mer- alco’s 6.7 million residen- tial customers will enjoy lower rates for the next 10 years.” Palmones stated his be- liefintheCSP, highlighting that, “as reported by me- dia, this is a process that tries to combine best prac- tices of both private and publicprocurement.Itwas reported that the savings for a typical household of PO.tlperkWh translates to annual savings of around 984 per year.” PAGE (|