BOL HOLDS HYDRO’S PRIVATIZATION

The Bangsamoro Government will have the right to own the Agus power plants in the event it is privatized

An official of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) said the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (Psalm) has put on hold the privatization of the 982.8 megawatts (MW) Agus-Pulangi Hydroelectric Power Plants (HEPP) due to certain provisions in the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

“It may not be privatizing the Agus and Pulangi in the immediate term. Therefore, it is sort of an indefinite plan at the moment,” Assistant secretary Romeo M. Montenegro, Minda deputy executive director, said yesterday during a press conference at the Habi at Kape, Abreeza Mall.

He said Psalm is yet to determine when to begin with the privatization process of the hydroelectric plants after the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) was signed.

“In the BOL, it was stipulated in one of the provisions that... once it (Agus complex) is privatized, the Bangsamoro government will have preferential right to own,” Montenegro said.

Article 13, section 36 (b) states that, “in the event of the privatization of the Agus Hydropower Complex, the Bangsamoro Government shall have preferential rights to acquire the hydroelectirc plants within its territorial jurisdiction.”

“Therefore, Psalm cannot just unilaterally make any specific decision in terms of privatizing it without reckoning it with the provisions of the BOL,” Montenegro said.

For now, he said Psalm now wants to focus in the rehabilitation of the Agus and Pulangi power complexes. A feasibility study is expected to begin next year and actual rehabilitation of the plan will begin sometime middle of 2019.

Earlier, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the rehabilitation of the power complexes will be pegged around US$1 billion and is expected to extend the life of the power plants by 30 years.

“The rehabilitation of units 3 to 5 of Agus 6 costs around $172.5 million; Agus 2, $207 million; Agus 7, $62.10 million; Agus 4 and 5, $245.07 million; Pulangi 4, $293.25 million; and Agus 1, $92 million,” DOF said in a statement.

Montenegro said the power plant’s dependable capacity is expected to increase to 80 percent from 60 percent. The plant is currently producing only around 500 MW to 600 MW from its installed capacity of 982.8 MW.