Philippines

A decrease in transmission and system loss charges will pull down Meralco electric bills this June.

The Sibulan Hydropower Project will add a significant amount of generation capacity to the Mindanao grid once it is in full operation. The first of its two plants, in fact, is already generating 26 megawatts since it started operation in April.

Meralco petitioned the Energy Regulatory Commission to lower by US$0.0098 the increase in the generation charge for March 2010. The company wanted the increase to be lowered at US$0.0304 per kwh from US$0.0402 per kwh.

AboitizPower assumed ownership of PB 117, a 100-MW power barge at Nasipit, Agusan del Norte, Mindanao.

From US$0.0911/kWh in November, Meralco's generation charge was computed at US$0.0006 less per kilowatthour this December at US$0.0906.

AboitizPower will supply renewable energy to San Fernando Electric Light and Power Company for three years starting 26 December 2009. Cleanergy, the AboitizPower brand of clean and renewable energy, will be sourced from AboitizPower's Tiwi-Makban geothermal facilities, as well as from its Hedcor-Irisan hydroelectric plant in Benguet.

Aboitiz Power Corporation has paid the PSALM US$260.89 million covering the 60 percent balance for Tiwi-Makban geothermal facilities deal. The purchase was made through APC's wholly-owned subsidiary AP Renewables, Inc.

Eastern Metro Manila and Rizal province experienced rotating blackouts as Meralco implemented manual load dropping due to the shutdown of a transformer bank.

After acquiring a Bataan plant, San Miguel Corporation expressed interest in buying the Sucat Thermal plant, a dormant plant in Manila.

Green Core Geothermal Inc. gave the highest bid for the 192.5-megawatt Palinpinon and 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal power plants with $220-million. The amount also met the reserve price set by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., according to its spokesperson Conrad Tolentino.

Meralco begins paying around US$2.059 million worth of payouts next month for about 800,000 incidents where service commitments were not met. Incidents are the number of times that Meralco was unable to meet Guaranteed Service Levels provided under the performance-based rate mechanism. Customers are compensated if the distribution utility is unable to meet performance thresholds in duration and frequency of power interruptions, restoration time and connection time. The said amount is for the first regulatory year of the PBR, which was from July 2007 to June 2008.

Kepco is planning to incorporate smart grid technology in expanding in the Philippine wind and hydro power plant projects.

Aboitiz Power won a negotiated bid to acquire two barge-mounted, diesel-powered generation plants from PSALM. Each of the plants has a generating capacity of 100 megawatts.

Meralco customers will enjoy another reduction in their power bills following a drop in the generation charge this month.

Meralco is further educating its customers on efficient and responsible electricity usage with the introduction of energy efficiency corner kiosks.

First Gen Corporation intends to bid for the administration of the independent power producer contract package that includes the 140-megawatt Casecnan hydroelectric power plant in Pantabangan, Nueva Vizcaya.