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STATE-RUN Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.
(Psalm) is set to conduct another pre-bid conference for the
Tiwi-MakBan geothermal power complex.
In a statement, the agency tasked with selling
the government’s power plants said that it will hold the second
pre-bid conference for the 747-megawatt generating facilities to
address concerns raised by the prospective bidders last week.
Set for April 16, the second pre-bid conference
will discuss the bidders’ questions on the geothermal resource
sales contract and the power supply allocation for the Tiwi-MakBan
plant package, which will be auctioned off on June 4.
In the Invitation to Bid furnished to the public
in February, Psalm said that the sale of the Tiwi-MakBan power
complex “will include a power supply allocation.”
However, the said sweetener, which would allow
the plant’s new owners to have a ready market for its generated
electricity, has yet to be finalized.
Froilan A. Tampinco, Psalm vice-president for
asset management and electricity trading, said the agency is still
in talks with state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) with regard
to the transition supply contract for the geothermal plants.
He said the supply contract for the facilities,
the first geothermal plants to be bid out, would be known by the
second pre-bid conference. Nine investor groups are vying for the
Tiwi-MakBan facilities.
This year, Psalm expects to reach the 70-percent
privatization target for the generating assets of Napocor in Luzon
and the Visayas. This is one of two preconditions for starting open
access and retail competition in the local electricity industry. The
second one pertains to the privatization of the contracts with
independent power producers to third-party administrators.
Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act,
the open-access regime is supposed to inaugurate a period of cheaper
energy as consumers would have more choices of supply.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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