Meralco to borrow P100 B for 2 plants

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and its partners plan to borrow nearly P100 billion from local banks this year for two power projects in Zambales and Quezon provinces.

Meralco is looking at raising nearly P100 billion to move the Subic and Quezon power projects to financial close, president Oscar Reyes said during the briefing after the company’s stockholders’ meeting yesterday.

For the 455-megawatt San Buenaventura coal power project, Reyes said the cost is around P40 billion, while the cost for the Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy) would be a bit higher since it would have a 600-MW capacity.

“We are looking at 70-30, 70 percent from debt and 30 percent from equity,” he said, noting that they hope to close deals within the third quarter of the year.

San Buenaventura in Quezon is a joint venture of power generation arm Meralco Power Gen (MGen) with New Growth B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Generating Co. of Thailand.

“We’re pleased after quite sometime we finally received [Energy Regulatory Commission] approval, which puts the project in a position to close the financing and award the EPC contract... in order to meet completion which is latter part of 2018,” Reyes said.

Meanwhile, the Meralco official said RP Energy is now trying to also move closer to financial close and award of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

“Because of the delay, they’ve been in discussion with EPC contractor that have been pre-selected before. We’re hoping to have them come in by early 2019,” Reyes noted.

RP Energy is a consortium composed of MGen, Aboitiz Power Corp. and Taiwan Cogeneration International Corp.

In February, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for RP Energy to construct a 600-MW megawatt coal-fired power plant at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.