Napocor awards coal contract to Thai firm

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) has awarded a $1.925-million coal supply contract to PT Jorong Barutama Greston, the trading arm of Banpu Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand.

PT Jorong tendered a bid of $27.50 per metric ton.

Napocor officials said a total of 11 interested parties indicated their plan to submit bid forms for the Naga coal supply contract. However, only four actually participated in the electronic bidding held last June 5.

The four are: PT Bukit Baiduru/Rock Energy, PT Kideco/Samsung, PT Dasa Eka/Corp. de Solliman, and PT Jorong.

The coal shipment is expected to arrive in September.

Napocor officials said that it is the first time that the bidding was done electronically or e-bidding and it utilized the so-called reverse auction method.

Under Napocor’s normal bidding procedures, a two-envelope system is enforced with one envelope containing the technical proposal and the other the price bid submitted in two separate envelopes on separate occasions.

"Those whose technical bids comply with Napocor’s specifications then qualify for the second part of the two-envelope system. The price bids are then opened and the bids are ranked according to their financial tenders, and the lowest evaluated bid is chosen as the winning bid," it said.

Under the reverse method, all technically approved bids are allowed to change their price bids on-line several times during the prescribed bidding period.

Each bidder is given a computer terminal and monitor inside the Napocor bidding room where the bidders can see the lowest price bid without knowing which of his co-bidders submitted it.

To win the tender, all that a bidder has to do is try to beat the lowest price bid offer during the prescribed period.

During the Naga public auction, the prescribed bidding period was 30 minutes.