SMC, Aboitiz failed power plant bid
Posted on June 27th, 2009
The bidding to secure the contracts that would have allowed the winning company to run and own the power plants that provide electricity to the National Power Corporation, ended in failure. Not even the two of the most business groups in the country succeeded to secure the power generation contracts being offered for sale by the government.
The two companies, San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC), a unit of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Therma Luzon Inc., of the Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) failed to meet the reserve prices set for the Sual and Pagbilao power plants, according to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm). Because of that, the two companies were also not able to become independent power producer administrators (IPPAs) for the two power facilities.
Psalm, which is tasked to sell the government’s power assets, said that although SMEC and Therma have been able to pass the technical and financial requirements set by their Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), still their offers for the Sual and Pagbilao’s contracted capacities came up short. The two facilities have a combined capacity of 1,700 megawatts.
SMEC came with a combined bid price at $1.59 – $1 billion for Sual and $590 million for Pagbilao. Therma, on the other hand, came in with a bid of P$1.46 – $812.946 million for Sual and $648.8 million for Pagbilao.
Psalm said that in spite of the failed bidding, they expressed confidence that IPPAs would be appointed this year. They are now preparing for a new round of bidding. They are also set to implement Phase II of its IPPA selection process, which will involve the IPP contracts of the Casecnan, Bakun, and San Roque hydropower plants, which has capacities of 140 MW, 70 MW, and 95 MW respectively.
APC is not yet sure whether they would still participate in the second round of bidding for the said contract.
