ABOITIZ POWER Corp. said it remained keen on acquiring state-owned power-generating facilities and independent power producer administrator (IPPA) contracts should the government decide to push through with the privatization of these assets.
APC president Erramon I. Aboitiz said the company was still interested in the 982.1-megawatt (MW) Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power plant in Mindanao.
APC, he added, was also looking at two more IPPA contracts—the 728-MW Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydropower facilities and the 559-MW Unified Leyte geothermal power plants.
“We’re just waiting for PSALM [Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.] to continue the privatization process,” Aboitiz said.
PSALM earlier postponed the IPPA bidding process for the Unified Leyte geothermal facilities and the 149-MW Naga power plant complex in Cebu, while that for the 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant failed last June.
Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras also declared earlier that the government planned to keep the Agus-Pulangi facilities in the meantime to help stabilize supply and electricity prices in Mindanao.
“I’m not eager to sell [the hydro facilities] because I think part of the solution to the Mindanao situation is the appropriate use of those [plants] not just for supply but in the pricing equation,” Almendras said.
The two facilities are critical power assets as these currently provide more than half of Mindanao’s electricity supply.
“[The Agus and Pulangi are] not yet for sale. We don’t want to sell them yet, or maybe how long that will be, it will depend on how soon we can achieve true pricing [in Mindanao] and make appropriate adjustments to encourage investments,” Almendras explained.
However, PSALM said it would still push to complete the sale of all its remaining assets by 2011 to help liquidate the burgeoning debts of another government agency—National Power Corp.
“That's the target,” said Conrad S. Tolentino, PSALM vice president for electricity trading. “Our timeline is the soonest that we can, but always aligned with the direction of the Department of Energy.”
According to documents from PSALM, the government needed to dispose of four power plants, which have a combined generating capacity of 2,590 MW, and eight IPPA contracts with a combined capacity of more than 3,500 MW.
The sale of all the government-owned power assets is expected to raise additional funds to pay Napocor debts, which stood at a staggering $16.35 billion as of end-June.
So far, PSALM has managed to sell 31 generation assets, equivalent to 91.73 percent of government-owned operating capacities in the Luzon and Visayas. It has also privatized 68.22 percent of its total contracted capacities to IPP administrators.
The sale of all the assets generated $10.65 billion, of which only $4.42 billion has been collected. PSALM expects to receive the rest of the amount in deferred payments over a certain period.
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