Napocor sets new bidding for additional fuel requirements

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) will hold in March a new bidding for some P3.06- billion worth of additional fuel requirements for 2003.

Documents show that Napocor will need an additional 323.7 million liters of fuel oil valued at P2.899 billion plus 11.04 million liters of diesel valued at P165.06 million to run power barges in the Visayas and Mindanao due to the anticipated occurence of El Niño.

The state-owned power firm conducted a bidding for this additional fuel requirement last Dec. 19 but the bidding failed. Earlier, Napocor conducted the regular bidding for its 2003 fuel requirements amounting to about P10 billion.

A Napocor official said they would advertise the new bidding in the third week of February and request for the oil companies to submit their bids in March.

According to the official, the additional fuel oil will be used in Genco 2 (Bauang, Subic II, Ogden-Edison, Sual); Genco 3 (NMPC I or the Agus Pulangi complex); Genco 4 (Cebu Thermal I and II, Cebu Diesel I); Genco 6 (Pinamucan and Rosario) while the additional diesel will be used for Genco 2 (Bauang and Subic II); Genco 4 Cebu Thermal I and II, LBGT (Leyte geothermal and Palinpinon I and II and Cebu Diesel I); Genco 6 (Pinamucan) and Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG).

The Napocor official said the additional fuel requirement will not be subject to the new Clean Air Act (CAA) specifications. "We have not factored the impact of the CAA in our fuel procurement for 2003 maybe that will come in 2004," he said.

Napocor said they will have to spend an additional P1.25 per liter if the new specifications of CAA will be implemented. And this will translate to a 30-centavo per kilowatthour additional cost to electricity end-users.