First Gen, Aboitiz, SMC keen on Ilijan power plant

MANILA, Philippines - Three of the biggest players in the country’s power sector — First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group, Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) — of the Aboitiz family and San Miguel Energy Corp. have all expressed interest to bid for the contracted capacity of the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan combined-cycle power plant.

First Gen president and COO Federico Lopez confirmed that the company has submitted its letter of interest (LOI) to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the government entity tasked to privatize the assets and contracts of the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

APC vice president Luis Miguel Aboitiz also confirmed forwarding their LOI to PSALM while San Miguel Corp. president and CEO Ramon Ang said they will bid for Ilijan.

It was uncertain, though, if the operator of Ilijan, Korea Electric Power Corp. through Kepco Ilijan Corp., submitted its bid.

“I was not aware if we met the deadline (yesterday Jan. 29) but as for this morning, there was still no go-signal from the higher ups,” a Kepco official said.”

The Ilijan power facility is located in Brgy. Ilijan, Batangas City.

PSALM is set to conduct the pre-bid conference for the Ilijan administrator on Feb. 11. The agency recently held an investor’s forum to discuss proposal to divide the Ilijan capacity.

In its invitation to bid, PSALM’s Bids and Awards Committee said it reserves the right “to divide the Ilijan capacity in two or more portions.”

The bidding proper for the Ilijan contracted capacity is scheduled on April 16.

Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Perform Act requires PSALM to privatize at least 70 percent of the contracted capacities of the independent power producers in the Luzon and Visayas grids.