Aboitiz set to take over Naga power plant
The Cebu-based unit of Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower) is set to take over the Naga Power Plant complex in southern Cebu, four years after it won the bidding for the state-owned facility.
AboitizPower said its subsidiary Therma Power Visayas, Inc. has received the Certificate of Effectivity (COE) from the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) to initiate its purchase of the Naga power plant.
The COE implements the September 28, 2015 decision of the Supreme Court, which upheld the April 30, 2014 award of the facility to Therma Power Visayas.
"We appreciate the decision of PSALM and we look forward to operating the facility and contribute to securing the energy needs of the Visayas," AboitizPower president and COO Antonio R. Moraza said in a statement.
Whether Aboitiz will rehabilitate the old facility or demolish it to build a new one is still under eval uat i on.
"It is possible that we will build a new facility. It's a given that we will do something about it," said Jaime Jose Aboitiz, AboitizPower executive vice president and COO for the Distribution Business Group, in a press conference Friday, May 25.
AboitizPower is one of the top three power companies in the country, with a generation capacity of 3,003 megawatts. The listed company expects to commission within 2018 an additional 500 MW, including the 340-MW Therma Visayas baseload plant in Toledo City, Cebu.
The target is to bring total generation capacity to 4,000 MW by 2020.
The Naga power complex, situated in Colon, City of Naga in southern Cebu, consists of two thermal power plants - the 52.5-MW Cebu 1 and 56.8-MW Cebu 2 coalfired units - and one diesel-fired facility that is composed of six bunker-C fed generating units.
PSALM, the government-owned corporation that manages state-owned power generation and other disposable assets, conducted a third bidding for the Naga power complex on March 31, 2014 after two failed bids.
Therma Power Visayas was declared the highest bidder with a bid of P1.088 billion and was awarded the contract.
However, SPC Power Corporation exercised its right to top the winning bid under its 2009 land lease agreement for the land-based gas turbine in Naga and submitted a bid of P1.14 billion. PSALM turned over the Naga plant to SPC in September 2014.
The Supreme Court later upheld the validity of the public bidding and nullified the asset purchase deal with SPC in a ruling issued on September 28, 2015. In April 2016, the High Court decision became final as it denied SPC’s request to be allowed to appeal for the second time.
Other projects that are targeted to go online in 2018 are the 42-MW coal-fired Pagbilao plant in Quezon province and the 69-MW Manolo Fortich hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon. (Marites VillamorIlano/ SunStar Philippines)