Posted by Alena Mae S. Flores
First Gen Corp., a unit of the Lopez Group, is hoping for a quick Supreme Court decision over the legality of the sale of the 218-megawatt Angat hydroelectric power plant and a favorable ruling awarding the facility to the second-highest bidder.
“That’s still unresolved. Right now, we’re still the second highest bidder,” First Gen president Francis Giles Puno told reporters over the weekend.
First Gen Northern Energy Corp., a consortium among First Gen, the Ayala Group and Metro Pacific Corp., offered a bid of $365 million for the Angat facility in Norzagaray, Bulacan in an April 10, 2010 auction.
Korea Water Resources Corp., or K-Water, the state water utility firm of South Korea, submitted the highest bid of $440.88 million with no local partner, besting five others who are already entrenched in the Philippine power sector, including First Gen.
K-Water, however, failed to take over the facility after several cause-oriented groups filed a case against the sale in the Supreme Court, citing constitutionality and foreign ownership issues.
“In our case, we bring in the power expertise [to the consortium]. So we hope that there’s resolution and we could be in a situation where it could also be awarded to our consortium,” Puno said.
He said the consortium wanted to “optimize that asset to increase the sources of generating capacity available in the Luzon grid.”
K-Water vice president Gee-Hwan Park said his company was waiting for the Supreme Court decision on the case.
“We are willing to wait for the proper judgment of the SC. We can extend the performance bond if necessary. We will wait and will not pull out,” he said.
K-Water is engaged in the construction, operation and management of multi-purpose dams and multi-regional and local water supply systems in Korea.
It oversees 15 multi-purpose dams that supply water, control floods and generate electricity. It is now building five additional dams.
First Gen, meanwhile, is the country’s second-largest power company delivering natural gas, geothermal and hydro energy sources. Its partners Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Corp. are also involved in the power sector.
The Angat power plants are located in San Lorenzo, Norzagaray in Bulacan. They consist of four main units, each with a 50-MW capacity. The units were commissioned between 1967 and 1968.
The plant uses five auxiliary units, including two turbines capable of generating a total of 28 MW to augment operation. The turbines are owned by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and were not part of the bidding.
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/May/28) source
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