5 foreign groups eye contract for First Gen expansion project

At least five foreign groups have signified interest to join the bidding for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the expansion of the 112-MW Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric power facilities of First Gen Corp., a top company official said. 

"We are starting to bid out the EPC for Pantabangan-Masiway capacity expansion.  We have received a number of inquiries from European and Japanese suppliers," First Gen vice chairman and CEO Peter Garrucho said.

He said among those interested to bid for the EPC contract are: VA-Tech; Maschinen & Technic Inc. (MATEC) representing Siemens; Alstom; Marubeni; and Mitsubishi/Toshiba.

MATEC was the Philippine representative of Siemens AG until 1996. In their 16 years of collaboration, MATEC’s name became synonymous to that of Siemens in the fields of power generation, transmission, distribution and application and communication.

VA-Tech, on the other hand, is a Swedish company engaged in the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of protection and control equipment for electricity industries worldwide.

If completed next month, Garrucho said the bidding would push the completion of the expansion program by 2008.

First Gen, the investment arm of the Lopezes in power generation, intends to invest some $100 million for the expansion and upgrade of its newly-acquired 100-MW Pantabangan/12-MW Masiway hydroelectric complex. 

In an earlier interview, Garrucho said the upgrade and modernization program would increase the capacity of the two power plants by 109 MW. The upgrade of the two facilities would cost between $20 million to $25 million. 

Meanwhile, the $80-million expansion project would be completed in 2010 in time for the expected additional power demand in the Luzon grid. 

The capacity expansion will involve putting in additional 65 MW capacity for Pantabangan and 13 MW for Masiway. 

Garrucho said the upgrade and expansion would be financed through proceeds from the company’s recent $90- million bond offering, $170-million initial public offering (IPO) and from internally-generated funds.