By
Lenie Lectura- January
18, 2019
ABOITIZ
Power Corp. (AboitizPower) has started rehabilitation works on one of the four
units of the Naga Power Plant Complex (NPPC) in Cebu.
“We started the
rehabilitation, and with that, one unit will be available before the end of
February,” Aboitiz Power COO Emmanuel Rubio said.
The NPPC is composed of
diesel and coal power units with a combined capacity of 153.1 megawatts (MW).
However, when AboitizPower took over the facility, there was no more coal
plant, thus the capacity was reduced to 40 MW.
Rubio said last year
the company would have wanted two units to be operational in February 2019
and the remaining units by the second half of next year.
A capital expenditure
of P892 million was set aside for the rehabilitation.
There are no immediate
plans to expand the NPPC capacity, since another of the company’s power
facility, also in Cebu, will be operational soon.
“I want to make sure we
service the ancillary service requirements, and I am commissioning a 300-MW
plant down the road. So, I want to make sure that NPPC serves a different
purpose than the one in Toledo,” explained Rubio, who was referring to the
340-MW Therma Visayas baseload power plant in Toledo City, Cebu.
NPPC, once the subject
of a legal dispute, was physically turned over and accepted by AboitizPower
subsidiary Therma Power Visayas Inc. (TPVI) in July last year.
NPPC was turned over to
TPVI after it offered a bid of P1.088 billion. However, SPC Power Corp.
exercised its right to top and matched the bid with an additional P54 million
or a total of P1.143 billion.
The government, through
the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), awarded the
contract to SPC, despite TPVI’s objections.
A petition with the
Supreme Court was then filed seeking to enjoin PSALM from awarding the Naga
plant on the grounds that SPC’s right to top was void. The SC reinstated the
notice of award to TPVI.
No comments:
Post a Comment