Manila Electric Co., is keeping its target of expanding outside Metro Manila and nearby provinces, with Albay as its latest focus.
Speaking to reporters last week, Arnel Casanova, senior vice president and head of strategic distribution utility partnerships at Meralco, said that local government executives in Albay had approached the company to beef up Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco).
A member-owned distribution utility, Aleco delivers electricity to three cities and 15 towns in Albay.
‘They say they are struggling because businesses planning to move into their municipalities are unable to invest due to unreliable power supply,’ Casanova said.
‘We’re studying that, and hopefully, Aleco will be welcoming us to provide us with the necessary information so we could make a better proposal,’ he added.
At present, Meralco serves more than 8.2 million consumers in the capital region, including Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and portions of Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, and Quezon.
To recall, the power distribution giant also submitted an unsolicited proposal to partner with South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Socoteco II), whose franchise area covers General Santos City and Sarangani province. Its board, however, turned down Meralco’s offer.
Casanova said the group sent a letter to Socoteco II, urging the latter to launch a competitive selection process instead.
‘To ensure that the process will be more transparent, we encourage them to actually bid it out,’ he said.
The official also reiterated Meralco’s interest in joining the public bidding of Batangas II Electric Cooperative Inc.
Batangas has been experiencing frequent and prolonged outages, affecting businesses.
If Meralco gets hold of these power cooperatives, it would infuse capital to boost their infrastructure, including equipping them with smart systems, smart grids and line upgrades, among others.
In a previous briefing, Meralco maintained that pursuing partnerships with power cooperatives was meant to address their years-long electricity issues.