The Philippines Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has yet to line up the inventory of power assets up for sale this year, pending further discussions with concerned agencies.
Under Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, PSALM is mandated to manage the privatization and maintenance of National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) power-generation assets, liabilities and contracted capacities.
Among the power assets that are yet to be privatized are the 40-MW “security capacity” of the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plant (ULGPP) and the bulk capacity of the ULGPP itself.
“There is no definite bid schedule yet for Unified Leyte bulk and security energy this year because we need further consultation with [the] DOE [Department of Energy] on policy directions,” PSALM Officer in Charge Lourdes Alzona said in an interview.
The ULGPP is in the Visayas. The PSALM Board still needs to determine if the 40-MW security capacity would be bundled to the remaining 160 MW of ULGPP’s bulk capacity that has yet to be privatized.
PSALM is also looking at a negotiated sale of the bulk capacity of ULGPP after only one bidder—Unified Leyte Geothermal Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Lopez-led Energy Development Corp.—participated in the bidding activity.