MANILA, Philippines – The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. has formally turned over the management of the independent power producer contracts for the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Sual and 700-MW coal fired power plants to its new administrators.
The Sual power facility in Pangasinan has been turned over to the management of San Miguel Energy Corp. (SMEC) and the Pagbilao plant in Quezon, to the Aboitiz Group's Therma Luzon Inc.
These two firms won the bidding for the IPP administrator contracts last August, with San Miguel submitting the highest bid of $1.07 billion for Sual, while Therma Luzon offered $691 million for Pagbilao.
"The turnover of the management of the contracted capacity of the Sual power plant was conducted at 12 midnight of Nov. 6 in Pangasinan through a meter reading of the power generation and an inventory of the coal and oil supply as stipulated in the Administration Agreement," PSALM said in a statement.
PSALM explained that the meter reading was held to verify the quantity of electricity delivered by the IPP to the grid reckoned from the time SMEC, as administrator, took over the management of the contracted capacity of the Sual facility.
A similar procedure was carried out at the Pagbilao plant in Quezon at 12 midnight of October 1, the state-run firm added.
"The turnover grants SMEC and Therma Luzon the authority to administer the trading of the power produced by their respective power facilities in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), thereby spurring competition in the electricity market," PSALM said.
Aside from trading their power output in the WESM, SMEC and Therma Luzon have become responsible for procuring coal and other fuel for their power plants, and for coordinating with the plant operators to ensure that the power they generate would match their respective bids, it added.
The Sual and Pagbilao IPPA contracts formed the first batch to be auctioned off by the state-owned PSALM.
With the successful appointment of the Sual and Pagbilao IPPAs, PSALM is set to bid out National Power Corp.'s contracted capacities in the 345-MW San Roque Multipurpose Hydroelectric Power Plant, the 70-MW Bakun Hydroelectric Power Plant, and the 30.75-MW Benguet Mini-Hydro power plants, which are all located in Northern Luzon.
Nine bidders are expected to participate in the bidding scheduled on Dec. 11.
PSALM said it has been targeting to transfer the management and control of at least 70 percent of the total energy output of the IPP power plants, under contract with Napocor to the IPPAs by 2010. PSALM has so far achieved 34.66 percent of this target.
