Aboitiz plans to bid for Panay/Bohol plants

After winning the Tiwi-Makban geothermal complex bidding, Aboitiz Power Corp. is planning to bid for the 146.5-megawatt (MW) Panay and 22-MW Bohol diesel power facilities.

APC senior vice president Lusi Miguel Aboitiz said the company would be participating in Panay/Bohol power plants privatization.

“We will bid for Dingle (Panay/Bohol package). We have submitted our letter of interest to join the bidding of the said power plants,” he said.

Aside from this, he said they would also be interested to bid for the independent power producer (IPP) contracts of the National Power Corp. which will be auctioned off by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) starting November this year.

Aboitiz said the company would also be looking at Palinpinon geothermal power facility.

PSALM will put Panay/Bohol package in the auction block on Oct. 29, 2008 while Palinpinon will be sold by the latter part of the year or early next year.

In its original asset sale schedule for 2008, PSALM packaged the Panay diesel plant with the 192.5-MW Palinpinon geothermal plant. But because the long-term steam supply agreement to be attached to the Palinpinon plant still has to be approved by the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC), the PSALM board decided to move the sale of the geothermal asset to 2009. Under JCPC Resolution 2006-1, the agreement, now known as the geothermal resources supply contract, is subject to the commission’s approval.

The PSALM board formally announced the withdrawal of the bidding for the Palinpinon-Panay package in a supplemental bid bulletin issued last  July 3, to the prospective bidders. This clarifies reports that the privatization of the Palinpinon plant was moved to November.

The Panay diesel power Plant facility consists of the 36.5-MW Panay 1 diesel power plant and the 110-MW Panay 3 diesel power plant. Panay 1 was commissioned in 1979, while Panay 3, which is also known as the Pinamucan diesel power plant, was relocated from its Batangas site after the expiration of the BOT (build-operate-transfer) contract with Enron Power Development Corp. in 2003. The plant was transferred to its present location to prevent a potential near-term power shortage and to provide voltage stabilization in the island of Panay.