Napocor won’t object to sale of power plants to EDC

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) said it has no objection to the sale of its Leyte-based power plants to PNOC-Energy Development Corp. (EDC).

"We interpose no objection," Napocor said, in a position paper as a response to House Resolution 364 filed by Rep. Eduardo Veloso.

The resolution urges the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) to allow the sale of the Tongonan power plants to EDC in order to rationalize power rates in Region 8, Cebu and Negros Islands.

PSALM, under the new Power Bill or Republic Act 9136, will be managing all the assets and liabilities of Napocor.

But Napocor, in that paper, said EDC should be able to find a private partner to be able to bid for the said power plants. "EDC is still part of the government so that it might need a private partner to satisfy the requirement of privatization," Napocor said.

Napocor said the sale of all its assets must be done through private bidding and should not favor any entity. "Sale shall be done through public bidding," Napocor said, in its position paper.

Before Veloso’s resolution, EDC, which is the geothermal development unit and one of the most profitable subsidiaries of PNOC, had already proposed to purchase the Tongonan power plants which is being run by Napocor but is getting steam from the geothermal fields of EDC.

EDC chairman and president Sergio Apostol said the purchase by EDC of Napocor’s power plants will add value to the geothermal development firm, especially now that EDC is on its way to selling its own shares to the public. "We believe this may add value to our firm," he said.

However, Apostol’s proposal was quickly dismissed by some Department of Energy (DOE) officials saying that this will run counter to government’s privatization thrust.

EDC, a P103-billion company in terms of assets, plans to sell at least 10 percent of its shares through an initial public offering (IPO) this year.