More Napocor gensets lined up for auction after Talomo plant

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.‘s (Napocor) will auction off four more of the National Power Corp’s generating assets following the successful bidding of the Talomo plant last week.

Based on the approved privatization plan, PSALM will bid out as a package the 22-megawatt Bohol power plant and the 1.2-MW Loboc hydroelectric plant.

PSALM has also lined up for sale another package of two hydroelectric power plants – the 2-MW Barit and 0.4-MW Cawayan hydroelectric plants.

PSALM president Raphael P.M. Lotilla said the results of the first bidding of Napocor’s assets "sets an irreversible course for the assets disposal firm towards full privatization of the government’s generation assets."

Last March 25, PSALM successfully sold the Talomo hydroelectric plant in Davao to Hydro Electric Development Corp. (HEDC), one of the power companies in the Aboitiz group.

HEDC bested two other bidders, Eco Tech Industrial Supply Corp. and Harty Incorporated Philippines. The 3.5-MW Talomo plant in Tugbok, Davao is the first Napocor asset privatized by PSALM, keeping up with its mandate under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA).

Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez Jr. said the successful proceedings underscored the viability of the government’s generation assets.

"We had three bidders composed of Filipino and foreign investors, which I think speaks well of the appeal of our generation assets to the business sector."

Perez, who chaired the Privatization, Bids and Award Committee (PBAC) for the public bidding of the plant, clarified that the participating bidders were either wholly Filipino-owned or Filipino-majority corporations.

The $1.37 million proceeds from the sale of Talomo will be used to pay a portion of Napocor’s debts. This amount forms part of the $27 million expected revenues that would be raised by PSALM from the sale of some of the generating assets of Napocor within the first half of 2004. A total of $2 billion is expected to be generated from the privatization of 35 generating assets to be sold in eight groups and in 18 individual packages.