PSALM eyes March turnover of Angat hydro plant

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) hopes to finally turn over the 218-megawatt (MW) unit of the Angat hydroelectric power plant to Korea Water Resources Development Corp. (K-Water) this summer.

It has been four years since the Korean firm beat the San Miguel group and four other companies with a $440.88-million bid for the facility fueled by water from the Angat dam in Bulacan.

“We’re targeting to close at March 25 or earlier,” PSALM president Emmanuel Ledesma told reporters.

Ledesma said K-Water and its local partner would need to complete two more requirements: Registering with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and securing a business permit from the local government.

“Once done, it should be okay. I don’t see any problem with the BSP registration. (As for the) business permit, we are already in talks with the local officials,” Ledesma said.

In Sept. 2013, K-Water VP for overseas business Byung Hoon Yune said the company was expected to start operation and maintenance at the Angat Hydro Electric Power Plant (HEPP) by end-2013.

As for the idle Malaya power plant, Ledesma said that he is coordinating with Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla to keep the facility as an “energy security asset.”

PSALM tried to auction off the plant twice, but could not attract investors due to the poor state of the plant’s equipment and pipes.

For now, Ledesma said, “there is nothing I can say. We have to sit down and decide what we can do.”

PSALM, the government’s power assets privatization firm, is also continuing talks with two of the country’s biggest power players for the prepayment of their remaining fees to the government.

San Miguel  has to settle some $2 billion, while Aboitiz, roughly $1 billion, Ledesma said.