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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
The privatization of the government’s power
plants sputtered anew after a two-year takeoff as the Power Sector
Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) again rescheduled
the bidding of other state-owned plants.
In a statement yesterday, Psalm said it is
moving the bidding for the 0.8-megawatt Amlan hydroelectric power
plant “to accommodate the request of prospective bidders [for]
more time to conduct their due diligence activities.”
The Amlan plant’s auction date, which was
supposed to be yesterday, was postponed to July 23 a day after a
company official disclosed that Psalm has moved the bidding for the
747-megawatt Tiwi-MakBan geothermal power complex to an unspecified
date in July.
The same statement released by Psalm yesterday
said the Tiwi-MakBan’s auction date has beet set from its original
date of June 4 to July 30, the same bidding date for the
620-megawatt Limay combined cycle power plant.
In a separate announcement yesterday, Psalm said
that it was also moving the bidding for the Limay plant to August.
Psalm said that the rescheduled privatization
dates will give it “more leeway in threshing out the issues raised
by the investor groups eyeing the power plants.”
But the delays in the generating facilities’
biddings, which should have been the first conducted by Psalm in
2008 after the auction for the 192.5-megawatt Palinpinon was
likewise put in the backburner, have slowed down Psalm’s
privatization momentum.
After only managing to sell less than 10 percent
of state-owned National Power Corp.’s generating assets since the
country’s power sector reform and restructuring program were put
into law in 2001, Psalm was able to jack this up to around 42.8
percent in the last two years.
Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of
2001, Psalm needs to privatize 70 percent of National Power
Corp.’s generating and contracted capacities before consumers may
be allowed to choose their own power suppliers.
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