Psalm to resume sale of power plants in August
MANILA, Philippines—The state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) Corp. will finally resume this August the sale of the remaining power-generation assets and contracted capacities owned by the government, a year after privatization activities were halted by the Aquino administration.
Psalm president and CEO Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr. said the government firm would first bid out the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) contract for the 149-megawatt Naga power facility in Cebu.
Ledesma further disclosed that after the privatization of the Naga IPPA, Psalm would bid out the IPPA for the 165-MW Casecnan hydroelectric power plant in Nueva Vizcaya. Also up for sale are power barges 1 to 4 within the fourth quarter of the year.
According to Ledesma, there are at least 10 companies vying for the Naga IPPA, most of which are local companies. While he did not disclose names, earlier reports have shown that diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has long been interested in bidding for the hydropower facility.
The resumption of all privatization activities this August may allow the government to finally complete the sale of all the government-owned power facilities and contracted capacities in five years’ time, after which Psalm will be spun off to become part of the Department of Finance.
The government has yet to schedule the bidding for other power facilities including the Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex and for several more IPPA contracts for the 640-MW Unified Leyte geothermal power complex; 782-MW Caliraya-Botokan-Kalayaan hydropower plants; 100-MW Western Mindanao Power Corp.; 50-MW Southern Philippines Power Corp.; 200-MW Mindanao coal power plant; and the 92.52-MW Mt. Apo 1 and 2 geothermal power plants.
Apart from stimulating competition in the energy market, the sale of these assets are meant to raise the much-needed funds to settle Napocor debts, which stood at a staggering $15.8 billion as of the end of 2010, down slightly from the previous year’s $16.5 billion.
So far, Psalm has managed to collect $4.85 billion from the sale of power assets, of which $4.84 billion were used.
