MANILA, Philippines – Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is firming up its entry into hydropower sector after it forged a partnership with Blue Energy Holdings and Management Corp., a company owned by the Tiu family.
Meralco disclosed yesterday it signed a joint venture (JV) agreement and shareholders’ agreement with Blue Energy.
Under the JV deal, both companies will put a JV company to pursue the development of hydroelectric power projects.
Meanwhile, under the shareholders’ agreement, Meralco will subscribe to 3.12 million shares of the JV firm for a total consideration of P3.12 million.
“Said shares represent 50 percent minus one share of the authorized capital stock of the proposed (jv company),” Meralco said.
Meralco and Blue Energy’s partnership forms part of the JV between the power distributor and Repower Energy Development Corp. (REDC) of the Tiu family signed last January.
The agreement calls for the joint construction of mini-hydropower plants using run-of-river resources for renewable and efficient energy production, marking Meralco’s foray into mini-hydropower development.
REDC had said the partnership will lead to a series of groundbreaking of mini-hydropower plants this year in select regions.
REDC has over 100-megawatt (MW) of mini-hydropower projects clustered in Quezon, Camarines Sur, Bukidnon, and other provinces under development with investments worth $400 million.
In July 2015, Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan bared plans of spinning off new unit for RE investments, a separate entity from the group’s power generating unit Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen).
MGen is building a portfolio of up to 3,000 MW of new power capacity, mainly from baseload power plants, to address the growing energy demand in the country.