Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. plans to conclude the sale of the last power barge by next year through a negotiated bidding with the lone bidder, its chief executive said over the weekend..
“PB [power barge] 104 is scheduled by early part of next year. It will be most probably for negotiated sale. We hope to dispose this asset by next year,” PSALM president Lourdes Alzona said.
PSALM earlier sought the opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Council if it could proceed with a negotiated sale of PB 104.
“We hope to hear from them soon. There’s been three failed bids already,” Alzona said.
PSALM declared a failed bidding on PB 104 in October 2013 after the two bidders did not meet the agency’s reserve requirement.
SPC Island Power Corp. submitted a bid of P45.888 million for PB 104 against Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp.’s P30-million offer.
“There were only two bidders during the last bidding. But the letter of interest came from only one bidder. So, we are asking OGCC if we can enter into negotiation with them,” Alzona said.
PB 104 is located at the Holcim Compound, Ilang, Davao City.
PSALM, which manages the assets and liabilities of state-owned National Power Corp., earlier required the interested bidders to operate PB 104 in Mindanao for at least five years.
The move to privatize PB 104 followed the successful turnover of PB 101, 102 and 103 to Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Corp. early this year.
PSALM signed an agreement with Trans-Asia to sell the three barges for P420 million.
Trans-Asia won the bid after engaging in a negotiated procurement with PSALM following the decision of the higher bidder, SPC, to withdraw its offer.
PBs 101, 102, 103 and 104 are nominal 32-megawatt barge-mounted bunker-fired diesel generating power stations that consist of four identical Hitachi-Sulzer diesel generator units rated at 8 MW each.
Meanwhile, off-grid electricity supplier DMCI Power Corp. plans to construct a 4.42-megawatt diesel power plant in Brooke’s Point town south of Palawan.
DMCI Power said in a statement electricity generated from the power plant would supply the power requirements of three towns—Brookes Point, Bataraza and Sofronio Española.
“This business decision is meant to ensure that these towns will enjoy stable and dependable power,” DMCI Power president Nestor Dadivas said.
“It is part of our missionary electrification commitment to increase presence in underserved areas of Palawan,” he said.
The facility that aims to augment the capacity of the company’s plant in Irawan, Puerto Princesa City.
DMCI Power signed an agreement with National Power Corp. and Palawan Electric Cooperative to provide base-load, or peaking power, in response to the demand of the island.
These towns presently have to endure power instability due to line connection problems and insufficient supply in the entire province.
“In the event that there will be line outage, these three towns will continue to have power, as they will no longer have to wait long for power to become available from Puerto Princesa,” Dadivas said.
DMCI Power is also expanding its energy portfolio to include renewable energy such as hydro and biomass.
“We are closely studying hydropower and biomass because we think they have the strongest potential in terms of output reliability and commercial viability among the available RE technologies,” Dadivas said earlier.
DMCI Power currently operates diesel and bunker power plants in Masbate, Palawan and Oriental Mindoro.
Another diesel plant with a capacity of three megawatts is set to operate in Sultan Kudarat by year-end.
The company is in the initial stage of identifying locations for the renewable energy projects.
“Right now, we have identified one or two areas. But the locations could still change depending on the results of our feasibility studies,” Dadivas said.
The company cited market conditions and government incentives as the reasons for its planned foray into renewable energy.
“Having priority dispatch, government support and a competitive price at a growing but highly competitive power industry makes these RE projects more attractive” the official said.
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