MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, said it continues discussions with the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) to purchase some of the government-owned P800 million to P900 million worth of subtransmission assets.

“The talks are moving to acquire the subtransmission assets of Transco that are within Meralco’s franchise area,” Jesus P. Francisco, the company president and chief operating officer, told reporters.

He added that the acquisition of Transco’s subtransmission assets have already been included in their performance-based regulation (PBR) application pending with Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for finality.

The acquisition, according to Francisco, will be done in two tranches— one in 2008 and another 2009—for a total amount of P800 million to P900 million.

Francisco added that Meralco has decided not to include acquiring the subtransmission asset of Transco that is within an economic zone in Rosario, Cavite, but within Meralco’s franchise area.

“It was not included because Transco said it was not in the position to include that,” he added.

The disputed subtransmission asset supplies the Rosario substation to Meralco and the Cavite Export Processing Zone Authority, which was later declared into transmission line and not a sub-transmission asset by Transco.

Meralco earlier said it considers tapping the Asian Development Bank to fund its planned purchase of Transco’s subtransmission assets.

Meralco also announced that it will earmark about P1 billion for the purchase of subtransmission assets and to upgrade the same assets it will purchase from Transco.

Meralco has been pushing for a deferred payment scheme with Transco, particularly on a quarterly basis for the assets it plans to purchase. 

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MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, said it continues discussions with the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) to purchase some of the government-owned P800 million to P900 million worth of subtransmission assets.