State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. said Wednesday 13 companies expressed interest in participating in the sale of the 165-megawatt Casecnan hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Ecija province.
“PSALM confirms that 13 registered bidders, who have paid the participation fee, attended the pre-bid conference for the sale of the Casecnan hydroelectric power plant,” the agency said.
PSALM held a pre-bid conference on Nov. 22 for the sale of the CHEPP, allowing bidders to ask questions and request clarification on concerns on the requirements in the bidding procedures.
The public bidding for the CHEPP will be on an “as-is, where-is” basis.
PSALM set the deadline for the submission of the bids on Feb. 24, 2023 at 12 noon at PSALM office in Quezon City.
The CHEPP is a “run-of-river” plant with a limited impounding area. The water from the reservoir flows into the plant’s powerhouse, down to the Pantabangan lake and into the irrigation channels of the National Irrigation Administration, which will continue its mandate of irrigating farmlands even after the privatization of the CHEPP.
The CHEPP, located at Sitio Pauan, Barangay Villarica, Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija, was covered by a build-operate-transfer agreement which ended on Dec. 11, 2021.
PSALM set the submission of letters of interest at 5 p.m. on Nov. 18.
The agency contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers Philippines to work on the third-party valuation of the Casecnan plant.
The PwC valuation would become the basis for the minimum bid price.