Gov't to auction 11 power plants next year

The state-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) will sell 11 more power plants in 2009.

Based on the proposed privatization timetable presented to the Joint Congressional Power Corp. (JCPC) over the weekend, PSALM president Jose Ibazeta said they will kick off next year’s auction with three big-ticket items in January.

Scheduled for disposition by the start of 2009 are the 116 megawatt (MW) Subic, the 620-MW Limay and the 100-MW Power Barge (PB) 117.

Lined up in February is the 100-MW PB 118. By April, PSALM will sell the 210-MW Navotas I and II and the 55-MW Naga.

In July 2009, it plans to auction off the 192-MW Palinpinon,   followed by the 800-MW Sucat and the 112-MW Tongonan in August.

By September, PSALM will bid out the 150-MW Bacman, and the 52-MW Cebu II in October.

For the remainder of 2008, PSALM has set the auction of several decommissioned plants.

Last week, PSALM formally opened the maiden sale of the decommissioned 108-MW Aplaya and the 22.3-MW General Santos diesel power plant package and the second round of bidding for the 146.5-MW Panay and the 22-MW Bohol diesel power complex, and the 0.8-MW Amlan hydroelectric power plant.

The Panay package and Aplaya/Gen.Santos power plants will be auctioned in November 2008 while the Amlan will be bid out in December.

PSALM will also start selling the National Power Corp. (Napocor) independent power producers (IPPs) contracts by November this year.

PSALM vice president for asset management and electricity trading Froilan Tampinco said they would start the bidding for the IPP contracts from November until mid-December until the sale level reaches the 70-percent threshold needed to implement the open access scheme.

“We will schedule the bidding of all IPP contracts and it will depend on the buyers what contracts they are going to purchase,” he said.

PSALM will use the ownership scheme as model for the IPP contract sale.

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), PSALM is required to appoint IPP administrators to manage and control Napocor-IPP plants until such time the contracts have expired.

Based on earlier proposals, the IPPAs will handle the contracts of Napocor with a total 4,221 MW capacity.

The IPPAs will be tapped through a competitive bidding, and those targeted are international power industry players and traders to be engaged as IPP administrators.

As proposed, the IPPAs will primarily bid out the IPPs’ energy output into the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) in a manner which optimizes its running hours and net revenues.

They would also negotiate bilateral contracts with customers and/or sell options, including financial instruments or insurance capacity.

Included in the list of IPPs to be transferred to the IPPAs are the 1,200-MW Ilijan natural gas combined cycle-owned and operated by Korean Electric Co. (Kepco)-Ilijan Corp. in Batangas; the Pangasinan-based 1,000-MW Sual coal units 1 and 2 operated by Mirant Power Corp. and the 700-MW Pagbilao coal units 1 and 2 operated by Mirant, now TeaM Energy.

The 215-MW Bauang diesel plant of Bauang Power Corp. in Zambales is also part of the IPPA list. Enron Power Corp.’s 116- MW Subic diesel plant and Casecnan multi-purpose hydro of the National Irrigation Administration in Nueva Ecija are also included.

Two more hydropower facilities, the 340-MW San Roque multi-purpose hydro of Marubeni/Sithe in Pangasinan and the 70-MW Bakun hydro of Aboitiz Equity Ventures in Ilocos Sur will also transferred to the management of the IPPA.

The only geothermal facility that will be handled by an IPPA is PNOC-Energy Development Corp.’s 440-MW Leyte B geothermal power plant.