PSALM to bid out power barges in first quarter of 2012

Business Mirror
SUNDAY, 04 DECEMBER 2011 19:17 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA


STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) is planning to bid out power barges 101 to 104 within the first quarter of 2012.
“While still waiting for the Joint Congressional Power Commission’s [JCPC] comment on the Naga privatization, we target to privatize the power barges [PB] 101 to 104 sometime in middle of March 2012,” Emmanuel Ledesma Jr., PSALM president, told reporters in an interview.


The PSALM official said they initially targeted to privatize the power barges sometime in January, but was deferred since no grid impact study has been made yet.


Ledesma said Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras has recently asked the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to undertake a grid impact study for the power barges which they expect to be completed in four to six weeks.


In November PSALM said its board has approved the sale of the power barges with the condition to immediately transfer the barges to Mindanao to augment the power supply in the region.


PSALM said then that the transfer would occur after the power situation stabilizes in the Visayas where the power barges are currently moored.


PSALM, in coordination with the Department of Energy, has yet to finalize the timeline and the details for the relocation. All transfer costs will be for the account of the winning bidder. 


The power barges are movable and can be relocated anywhere with adequate mooring structures.


Designed as base-load plants, PB 101 to 104 are nominal 32-megawatt (MW) barge-mounted bunker-fired diesel generating power stations that consist of four identical Hitachi-Sulzer diesel generator units rated at 8 MW each.


The Napocor bought the power barges from Hitachi Zosen Corp., which were used to help ease a severe power shortage in the Philippines, providing the required support in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.


Commissioned in 1981, PB 101 and PB 102 are currently moored at Barrio Obrero in Iloilo City, while PB 103 and 104, which were commissioned in 1985, are moored at Botongon, Estancia, Iloilo, and at the Holcim Compound, Ilang, Davao City, respectively.


Since they began operation, the barges had been moved to various locations to meet technical requirements—usually a power shortage—or to provide reactive power support to improve voltage regulation at the end of very long transmission circuits.


(Paul Anthony A. Isla)