Capital expenditures of Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor by sales and better known as Meralco, will exceed the P40 billion earmarked for this year. Meralco CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said a larger capex next year is needed to strengthen the company’s power distribution network amid climate change and to support the capital needs of renewable energy firm Terra Solar Philippines. Meralco plans to build a P200 billion solar farm under TerraSol.
Just recently, the distribution utility’s unit Meralco PowerGen Corp. reported that UK-based global investment firm Actis took a 40 percent stake in TerraSol for P34 billion to help fund the solar farm project in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.
