Angat hydroelectric plant rehab project attracts firms

Posted on January 16, 2013 11:29:53 PM

Business World Online

By C. A. M. C. Feliciano

THE AUCTION for the rehabilitation of two turbines of the Angat hydropower plant in Bulacan -- a priority project under the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program -- has attracted the interest of a number of major firms, the Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS) said yesterday.

THE ANGAT hydroelectric plant compound, shown in this official photo of the PPP Center, is located in Barangay San Lorenzo, Norzagaray town in Bulacan. -- ppp.gov.ph

A list e-mailed by the MWSS, which is the agency in charge of this PPP project, showed that 10 companies, so far, have bought pre-qualification documents:

• SN Aboitiz Power, which is a joint venture of Aboitiz Power Corp. and SN Norway;
• Marubeni Corp.;
• Aguirre Abano, Pamfilo, Pares, Pineda & Agustin Law Office; 
• Trans-Asia Oil & Energy Development Corp.;
• Korea Water Resources Corp.; 
• Sta Clara Power Corp.;
• EEI Corp.;
• Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation unit of Manila Electric Co.;
• Kaltimex Energy Philippines; and
• First Gen Northern Energy Corp.
Officials of these companies were not immediately available for comment yesterday.

STILL OPEN
Feroisa T. Concordia, director of project development service of the PPP Center, said the current pre-qualification stage, which began on Dec. 14 last year, “involves the issuance of pre-qualification documents and submission of these documents.”

Interested parties have until Jan. 31 to submit their application to qualify for bidding.

“Those parties who are still interested to buy the pre-qualification documents and participate can still do so since the deadline to submit pre-qualification documents is still on Jan. 31,” Ms. Concordia explained.

“Actually, the deadline can be extended. Some firms requested for an extension and we’ll look into that.”

Nathaniel C. Santos, chairman of the MWSS pre-qualification bids and awards committee, said his group will sift through applications after that deadline.

“After the pre-qualification stage, there we will be a screening so that we will know who are eligible to participate in the actual bidding,” Mr. Santos said in a separate telephone interview.

“After we determine those who are qualified to bid, we will issue the bid documents,” he added.

“And then we will set a pre-bid conference before the actual bidding, which is tentatively set on May 2013.”

He said the date for the pre-bid conference has yet to be set.

UNDERPERFORMING
The MWSS last month published the invitation to bid for the rehabilitation, operation and maintenance contract of auxiliary turbines 4 and 5 of the Angat plant.

The facility is a complex that runs on four main turbines and five auxiliary turbines.

In the invitation to bidders, MWSS noted that the two turbines concerned, with cumulative capacity of 28 megawatts, have been “underperforming.”

The project, which has a term of 20 years and is estimated to cost approximately P1.155 billion, involves rehabilitation of the two auxiliary turbines; construction of a separate control room, a new switchyard and transformer area; as well as operation and maintenance of the modernized turbines.   source