San Miguel Energy Corp., a unit of food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp., has expressed interest to join the bidding for the contract to manage the power output of the Bakun and San Roque hydroelectric plants in Benguet and Pangasinan provinces.
A source said San Miguel Energy sent a letter of interest to Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. to participate in the bidding.
“They’re [San Miguel] one of the nine bidders vying for the hydros,” the source said.
PSALM is bidding out the right to administer the contracted capacities of the two power plants, which are currently managed by independent power producers, or IPP.
San Miguel Energy earlier won the contract to manage the 1,000-megawatt capacity of the Sual coal power plant in Pangasinan after offering the highest bid of $1.072 billion.
Conrad Tolentino, PSALM vice president, declined to confirm San Miguel Energy’s plan to participate in the auction.
He said PSALM moved the auction date to Dec. 11 from the original Nov. 11 schedule after prospective bidders said they found it difficult to conduct due diligence because of the recent typhoons.
“This was requested by the investors because the recent typhoons delayed their due diligence,” he said. PSALM earlier said nine prospective bidders attended the pre-bid conference held on Sept.30.
PSALM is bidding out to prospective IPP administrator the 70-MW contracted capacity of the Bakun plant, 30-MW Benguet mini-hydro power stations, and 345-MW San Roque multi-purpose dam.
The Bakun plant in Alilem, Ilocos Sur is operated by the Luzon Hydro Corp. while the Benguet mini-hydro facilities in the Cordillera Administrative Region province is run by Hydro Electric Development Corp. and the Northern Mini-Hydro Corp.
The Bakun and Benguet facilities are run by subsidiaries of Aboitiz Group while the San Roque hydro plant is managed by Marubeni Corp. and Kansai Power International Corp. of Japan under a build-operate-transfer agreement with National Power Corp.
PSALM said the bidders must submit separate bids for each of the contracted capacities to ensure qualification.
Tolentino said the bidders would have to bid for all and could win the three hydro facilities.
Bidders submitting an offer for only one or any two of the contracted capacities will be disqualified.
PSALM’s rules specify that a qualified company could be declared the highest bidder for any one or all of the contracted capacities.
