The third party bids and awards committee (TPBAC) of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has declared failure of bidding on the 850-megawatt solar capacity auction as two expected challengers to the unsolicited proposal of Terra Solar, a joint venture of Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. of billionaire Enrique Razon and Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc., owned by young businessman Leandro Leviste, did not submit their offers.According to Meralco, the two expected challengers – the consortium led by SunEnergy Inc. and SMC Global Light and Power Corporation (SGLP) – did not submit their respective offers during the final stretch of the auction process which was slated 9:00am on Tuesday, April 5.The bid and awards committee said its “failed bid declaration” was based on Section 9 of the revised competitive selection process (CSP) rules, which stipulates that a comparative bidding is considered failed when, during its conduct, no comparative bid was received by the TPBAC.“TPBAC determined that there was a failure of bidding for this CSP…there were no comparative bids received by the April 5 deadline to challenge the unsolicited proposal of Terra Solar Philippines, Inc.,” it stated.That specific CSP exercise was attended by several observers from the Department of Energy (DOE), the lead agency which approved the conduct of that solar capacity auction.The auction body said its decisions “were made in consideration of its mandate to uphold the policy under the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) and the revised CSP rules to conduct a competitive public bidding, which ensures the quality, reliability, security and affordability of electric power supply to Meralco’s captive customers.”The TPBAC similarly emphasized it “did not receive any motion or request to further extend the deadline.”SunAsia, in particular, had previously indicated that it will be the David-like player in the renewable energy sector that will challenge the financial supremacy of the Razon group in that solar capacity bidding. But during the submission of tenders, what the company lodged was a “notice of non-submission of bid” while SGLP notified the TPBAC that it will no longer participate in the auction.In February 2 this year, Meralco received expressions of interest (EOIs) from the two other prospective bidders, raising expectations of a possible successful outcome.There is no definitive statement yet from Meralco if there will be a rebid process and its timetable. Nevertheless, in SunAsia’s April 5 correspondence to the TPBAC, it already manifested interest “to participate in the next round of competitive challenge, should there be any.”The bidding for that scale of solar installation had been aligned for the mid-merit capacity requirements of Meralco that should have been underpinned by a long term power supply agreement.Meralco conveyed that it had extended enough leeway for the other interested parties to prepare for their offers, hence, the deadline for the submission of bids had been stretched from March 7 to April 5.The unsolicited tender of the Razon-Leviste tandem has been anchored on P6.0800 per kilowatt hour (kWh) headline rate and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).As noted, Terra Solar calculated its offer based on 50-percent plant capacity factor (PCF) with no escalation – and underpinned by the following components: capital recovery fee of P23,608.20 per kilowatt-year; variable operation and maintenance (O&M) fee of P0.3100 per kWh; line rental cap at P0.1000 per kWh; ancillary services cost recovery cap of P0.2800 per kWh and a zero-rated value added tax (VAT) incentive.The targeted solar farm installations, as stated in the proposal, will have integrated energy storage systems (ESS) and shall be sited in Batangas-Cavite, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales.Terra Solar further said 600MW of its proposed capacity installations will be available by February 26, 2026 and the balance of 250MW to be delivered by February 26, 2027.
