The Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) yesterday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), stopping it from conducting the bidding for additional power supply totaling 1,000 megawatts (MW).
In a five-page order, the Taguig RTC granted the plea of members of the consortium operating the Malampaya gas field for the immediate issuance of the 72-hour TRO against Meralco’s conduct of competitive selection process (CSP) for its 600 MW and 400 MW power supply requirements, after finding merits to the verified complaint by the plaintiffs.
“Upon posting a TRO bond which is hereby fixed in the amount of P5 million, let a Temporary Restraining Order effective for 72 hours be issued in favor of the plaintiffs-applicants enjoining the respondent Manila Electric Co. from conducting its CSP, under its current Terms of Reference (TOR), including the receipt of bids, the award and the implementation of any award arising from (it),” the RTC said.
The RTC order effectively stopped Meralco’s invitation to bid a contract capacity of 600 MW whose bid submission deadline is scheduled on August 2, including all others that may be scheduled after, as well as its invitation to bid a contract capacity of 400 MW that has a scheduled pre-bid conference on August 1 and bid submission deadline on August 9.
The Taguig RTC acted on a 54-page complaint filed by members of the Malampaya consortium which argued that Meralco’s bid terms violate the preference given to indigenous natural gas under existing laws and creates a direct threat to the country’s energy security and energy sovereignty.
The complainants said Meralco’s bidding done through CSP was “flawed, skewed or supplier-driven and grossly violative of existing laws, rules and regulations.”
The petitioners sought the issuance of the 72-hour TRO against Meralco prior to a permanent injunction.
Without a TRO, the petitioners stressed the bidding would proceed and render the case moot.
The petitioners also pleaded the court to issue a 20-day TRO enjoining Meralco from conducting the CSP, including the implementation of the award arising from the bidding of the 600 MW and 400 MW power supply deals of the distribution utility.
The petition said the TOR governing the bids set by Meralco itself should be put on hold for it “violates the preference given to indigenous natural gas under relevant laws, rules and regulations” as there are provisions in the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and orders issued by the Department of Energy which give preference to local natural gas in power generation.
The petitioners said Meralco’s TOR for the scheduled bids “unduly disadvantages power suppliers which use ING (indigenous natural gas) as a fuel source” and power suppliers using indigenous gas are fenced off in the bidding for 600 MW and 400 MW.
The petition also argued “increased reliance on imported sources of fuel threatens the country’s energy security and energy sovereignty because these are greatly susceptible to a volatile market.”
The petition said if the biddings push through, it “would put the country in a situation where a significant portion of our power supply is placed in the hands of imported coal and imported LNG (liquefied natural gas), the prices of both are notoriously unstable and extremely subject to external shocks in the market.”
