Napocor offers P254M in contracts for off-grid locations

MANILA, Philippines—State-run National Power Corp. is offering P254 million worth of contracts for the lease of modular diesel generating sets for the remote, off-grid areas being served by its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG).

In a notice, Napocor said it will need gensets for the 9-megawatt Calapan diesel plant; the 6-MW Pulanglupa diesel plant; the 4-MW San Jose facility; the 5-MW Mamburao facility; the 4-MW Boac diesel plant; and the 2.8-MW Marinawa diesel plant.

A prebid conference will be held on May 21, 2013, to give prospective bidders an avenue to thresh out concerns regarding the contracts, while the bidding proper is scheduled on June 4, 2013.

Bidding will be conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using a nondiscretionary “pass/fail” criterion as specified under the Government Procurement Reform Act.

For this year, Napocor has started building five diesel-fed power facilities that would supply electricity in five remote and off-grid areas in Camarines Sur, Catanduanes and Bohol.

These diesel plants are targeted to generate 100 kilowatts or below, enough to serve the power demand of hundreds of households in each area.

These facilities may require investments of anywhere between P5 million and P6 million each.

A 15-kW diesel-fed power plant is expected to serve 147 households in Barangay (village) Atulayan, Sagnay, Caramoan, Camarines Sur, while a 20-kW facility will serve 249 households in Brgy. Toytoy, Palumbanes Island, Catanduanes, once completed. Another 60-kW diesel plant will meanwhile serve 753 households in Barangay Cabul-an, Buenavista, Bohol.

At present, Napocor operates and maintains 232 small power generating units with a total generated capacity of about 175 MW, serving 214 island and isolated grids and providing electricity to 47 customers consisting of 39 electric cooperatives, seven local government units and one multipurpose cooperative.