Aboitiz Power vying for Naga plant rehab contract

MANILA, Philippines - The AboitizPower Group expects to get the contract to rehabilitate the Naga Power Plant Complex (NPPC) in Cebu after the Supreme Court nullified the earlier contract given to SPC Power Corp.

“I think it should be us. If top up was nullified, then I think we won the bid,” AboitizPower CEO Erramon I. Aboitiz said.

Apart from SPC, Aboitiz Group’s Therma Power Visayas Inc. (TPVI) was the other firm that submitted a bid during the third round of auction for the NPPC in 2013.

TPVI emerged as the highest bidder with a P1.09-billion offer versus SPC’s P859 million, resulting in the award to the Aboitiz group.

However, SPC exercised its right-to-top TPVI’s bid, which was under the former’s land lease agreement with the government for the Naga facility until 2020, with a payment of P1.14 billion.

But in November 2015, the Supreme Court nullified and voided the sale of the 153.1-megawatt (MW) Naga facility in Cebu to SPC.

Following the high court’s decision, SPC said it would file a motion for reconsideration.

“We’ll wait for the MR. If the [decision on the] MR is consistent with the original ruling, then I really think it should be awarded to us,” Aboitiz said.

The NPPC contract is a 25-year lease over the land containing the Naga complex.

Located in Colon, Naga City, the facility consists of two thermal power plants and one diesel-fired power plant that use a combination of coal, bunker oil and diesel as fuel.

These include the 52.5 MW Cebu 1 and 56.8 MW Cebu 2 coal-fired thermal power plants, and the 43.8-MW Cebu diesel power plant composed of six 7.3-MW bunker oil power units.