THE National Power Corp. (Napocor) has started negotiations with Enfinity Asia Pacific Ltd. and Clenergen Corp. for the development of generating capacities in areas under the Small Power Utilities Group (Spug).
“We are negotiating with Enfinity for its solar energy development project and Clenergen for a biomass project. We’re even moving a step forward as Napocor is working with the two companies to come up with a business plan,” Froilan Tampinco, Napocor president, told reporters.
The Napocor official said once the business plan is finalized it will be submitted to the Energy department.
The government agency inked an agreement with both companies to jointly develop feasibility studies on the proposed projects.
Tampinco, however, made it clear that no business plan has been firmed up. “[Napocor] could either be an off-taker or a joint-venture partner. It will depend on the available options. Perhaps by mid-2011, we have firmed up something already.”
Tampinco said they target to complete the business plan by the first quarter of 2011.
Enfinity and Clenergen, according to Tampinco, are proposing to set up a 10- to 15 megawatt (MW) solar farm and a 10-MW biomass power plant, respectively.
Tampinco also noted that these projects fall under the P7 billion to P10-billion investment Napocor plans to undertake for its Spug operations.
“We had to alter some the investment figures as we are now barred from borrowing. Unlike before it [capital expenditure for Spug] used to be part of our financing plan. So now our approach is to resort to having prospective investors take in the equity while we lend our expertise on marketing the supply contracts,” he said.
Under Section 70 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, Napocor remains as a government-owned and -controlled corporation to perform the missionary electrification function through Spug.
The law also mandates Napocor to be responsible for providing power generation and associated power delivery systems in areas that are not connected to the transmission system.
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