Large power players such as Marubeni Corp., Semirara Mining and Power Corp., Aboitiz Group, First Gen Corp. and ACEN Corp. expressed interest in the privatization of the Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydro power plants in Lumban, Majayjay and Kalayaan, Laguna.
“We conducted the CBK pre-proposal conference last Friday with the qualified bidders,” PSALM president Dennis Dela Serna said.
Dela Serna said among those who attended are representatives from Marubeni, Semirara, First Gen, Giga Ace (owned by ACEN) and Thunder consortium composed of Aboitiz Power Electric Power Development Corp. and Japanese firm Sumitomo.
He said other interested companies were unable to attend the conference.
The PSALM official said the bidding would have two stages—the qualification stage and the proposal stage for the CBK privatization slated this year.
“Purpose of the pre proposal conference was to seek and answer questions by the qualified bidders on the RFP [request for proposal] documents,” Dela Serna said.
PSALM initially received interest from 28 companies to participate in the CBK privatization on Feb. 1, 2024 deadline for submission of interest, but one company decided to withdraw.
“PSALM will commit all its efforts to ensure that this will be a win-win privatization project for both the government and the winning private company, yielding optimal returns while serving the government’s interest,” Dela Serna said earlier.
The plants comprising the CBK Hydroelectric Power Plant Complex are in Lumban, Majayjay and Kalayaan towns. CBK has an overall contracted capacity of 796.64 megawatts.
The CBK plant complex is under a build-rehabilitate-operate-transfer (BROT) and power purchase agreement (PPA) between the CBK Power Company Limited and the National Power Corp. for 25 years from its effectivity on Feb. 7, 2001 or until February 2026.
PSALM tapped the Asian Development Bank as the transaction advisor contract to monetize CBK hydro power plants.
The Department of Finance is hoping to raise P50 billion to P100 billion from the CBK privatization.
