Masinloc power plant owner bags retail license

Tag : AES implementation

Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Masinloc power plant
owner bags retail license

AES Philippines Inc. has secured a retail electricity supplier(RES) license from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), allowingthe company to trade upon implementation of open access and retailcompetition.
The RES license granted to AES, which operates the 600-megawattMasinloc coal-fired power plant, will allow the company to sell,broker, market or aggregate electricity to the contestablemarket. The company won the bid for the facility after posting thehighest bid of $930 million in July last year.
Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Epira), thecontestable market will be composed initially of all electricityend-users with a monthly average peak demand of at least onemegawatt once open access begins.
The required peak demand will eventually be lowered until itreaches the household level.
The government as well as the private sector is banking on thisscheme to spur competition in the once state-controlled powersector, in hopes of driving down the countrys exorbitantelectricity bills, which are the second highest in the region nextonly to Japan.
The other RES licensees consumers may eventually get to choose fromfor their power supply include Cabanatuan Electric Corp., GN PowerLtd. Co., Aboitiz Energy Solutions Inc., Trans-Asia Oil and EnergyDevelopment Corp., GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. and FirstGen Energy Solutions Inc.
Distribution utilities may choose from wholesale aggregatorlicensees for their electricity requirements. The ERC has grantedsuch licenses to AES, Trans-Asia Oil, First Cabanatuan VenturesCorp., Aboitiz Energy Solutions; First Gen Energy Solutions,Angeles Power Inc., iN2Power Inc., GN Power Ltd., and TeaM(Philippines) Energy Corp.
-- Euan Paulo C. A