The government is set to turn over the 32-megawatt Power Barge 104 in Davao City to the winning bidder next month, the top executive of National Power Corp. said over the weekend.
“That’s the tentative schedule,” NPC president Gladys Sta. Rita said.
Napocor operates PB 104 in Davao City, pending the privatization of the facility while the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. manages the assets and liabilities of NPC as mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
SPC Island Power Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of SPC Power Corp., earlier submitted the highest offer for the negotiated sale of PB 104.
“SIPC was declared the negotiating party with the highest offer after it bested two other companies with its P218,899,999 proposal,” PSALM officer-in-charge Lourdes Alzona said earlier.
Two other companies joined the negotiated sale, including Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. and D.M. Wenceslao & Associates Inc.
PB 104 was commissioned in 1981 and started operation in 1985. It is located at the Holcim Compound in Ilang, Davao City.
PSALM earlier sought the opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Council on whether it could proceed with a negotiated sale of PB 104, after three failed auctions.
The bidding for PB 104 was declared a failure in October 2013 after the two bidders did not meet the reserve requirement.
The move to privatize PB 104 followed the successful turnover of PB 101, 102 and 103 to Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Corp. last year.
PSALM signed an agreement with Trans-Asia for the sale of the three barges for P420 million.
Trans-Asia won the bid after engaging in a negotiated procurement with PSALM following the decision of the highest bidder SPC Power to withdraw its bid.
PBs 101, 102, 103 and 104 are 32-MW barge-mounted diesel generating power stations with four identical Hitachi-Sulzer diesel generator units rated at 8 MW each.