Philippines

Meralco entered into power supply agreements with three major generating firms involving an initial total capacity of 1,720 megawatts. Meralco said it had signed an eight-year power supply deal with South Premier Power Corp for the full 1,180-MW net capacity of the Ilijan natural gas power plant in Batangas, south of Manila. It also sealed a seven-year power supply deal with a wholly owned unit of Semirara Mining Corp, the country's biggest coal producer, for an initial volume of 210 MW. The contracted volume under the deal with Semirara's SEM-Calaca Power Corp unit, which owns a 600-MW coal-fired thermal power plant in Batangas, will increase to 420 MW when another power plant unit begins commercial operation.