Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the 3,500 megawatts of direct current (MWdc) solar power farm project in Nueva Ecija of SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC), over which a unit of Meralco will have the majority shares, will need PHP200 billion worth of investments.

In Meralco’s press conference in Ortigas Monday, Pangilinan said the project will also have a 4,000-MW/hour capacity of battery energy storage system.

“There’s a battery element for the total project itself. With the batteries, investments estimate for the moment is around PHP200 billion,” he said.

MGen Renewable Energy, Inc. (MGreen), which is the renewables arm of Meralco’s generation unit Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with SPNEC last month to secure the rights to subscribe to common and redeemable voting preferred shares of SPNEC amounting to PHP15.9 billion.

“Upon transaction close, MGreen shall have a 50.5 interest in SPNEC,” Meralco said.

Once the transaction is completed, Pangilinan said Meralco aims to lead the development of the largest solar farm not only in Asia but in the entire world.

Meanwhile, for the first nine months of the year, Meralco’s consolidated core net income jumped 53 percent to PHP30 billion from PHP19.6 billion in the same period in 2022.

The company said growth drivers for its performance from January to September period included higher energy volume it distributed, robust performance of its power generation business, turnaround of its Global Business Power Corp. and the completion of the distribution and asset true-up refunds amounting to PHP49.1 billion for the past two years. (PNA)