Kepco shelves invest plans

Kepco Philippines Inc. (Kepco) has shelved plans to invest in other power-related infrastructure projects.

Kepco which holds a contract for the operation of the 1,200-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in Batangas, is a subsidiary of the Korean Power Corp., one of the biggest power generators in Korea.

Company officials said the current political crisis and the absence of privatization rules for the energy sector are the principal reasons why the Korean firm is holding back on new investments.

The energy industry has expressed concern over the continued delay in the passage of the Omnibus power bill, which will implement measures to restructure the industry. It will also privatize the National Power Corp. (Napocor) which is the partner of Kepco in the Ilijan plant.

"We don’t have other projects in the pipeline aside from maintaining our current projects. They are already quite huge to keep us busy," Kepco president Oh In-taek said.

The Ilijan plant is estimated to cost $710 million which will be partly financed by a $475-million loan to be provided by international creditors and by internally-generated funds. The project is under a 25-year build-operate-transfer contract with Napocor.

Kepco has formed a consortium to operate the Ilijan plant with it as controlling entity along with Southern Energy Philippines (20 percent); Mitsubishi Electric, (21 percent); and Kyushu Electric, (eight percent).