PSALM to sell Napocor power barges in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) will sell Power Barges (PB) 101-104 of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) on March 2012, a top PSALM official said.

PSALM president and CEO Emmanuel Ledesma said the new privatization schedule for the power barges would allow them to finish a grid study on Mindanao where the plants would be transferred after the privatization.

Earlier, PSALM said it planned to auction off the power barges before the end of this year or early January next year.

But Ledesma said last week, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras asked NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) to conduct a grid impact study.

“The study’s supposed to take four to six weeks, so that’s why there’s a slight delay. Initially we are targeting to privatize by middle of January. It’s just that the timetable cannot accommodate, so we’re looking at middle of March,” he said.

Ledesma also pointed out that they have to sell the power barges to help augment the power needs of Mindanao.

Under the bidding rules for the power barges, winning bidders would have to immediately transfer these power facilities in Mindanao and would have to stay there until 2014.

“We have put in a provision in the sales’ terms of reference (TOR) of Power Barges 101-104 that it would have to be transferred immediately to Mindanao and could only be transferred to other places by the winning bidders after three years,” he said.

The power barges are movable and can be relocated anywhere with adequate mooring structures.

Designed as base-load plants, PB 101, 102, 103 and 104 are nominal 32-megawatt (MW) barge-mounted bunker-fired diesel generating power stations that consist of four identical Hitachi-Sulzer diesel generator units rated at eight MW each.

Napocor bought the power barges from Japanese firm Hitachi Zosen Corp.

These barges were used to help ease a severe power shortage in the Philippines, providing the required support in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

Commissioned in 1981, PB 101 and 102 are currently moored at Bo. Obrero, Iloilo City, while PB 103 and 104, which were commissioned in 1985, are moored at Botongon, Estancia, Iloilo and at the Holcim Compound, Ilang, Davao City, respectively.

Since they began operation, these barges had been moved to various locations to meet technical requirements – usually a power shortage – or to provide reactive power support to improve voltage regulation at the end of very long transmission circuits.