Individual sale of Napocor’s gencos mulled

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), an entity created to handle the privatization of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), is looking at proposals to sell Napocor’s generation assets individually.

Energy Secretary and PSALM board member Vincent S. Perez, in an interview, said this proposal is one of the options they are studying right now.

"There will be some sales of gencos (generation assets) by clusters and some by individual plant," Perez said, adding that there have been proposals to buy only one power plant of Napocor.

But Perez said these are all preliminary and will have to be approved by President Arroyo. "We still don’t know. They (PSALM) are drafting it. They are going to present it to me in the next few weeks," he said.

He said they expect that by mid-October this year, they will be able to come up with a concrete listing of gencos to be sold to the private sector and what mode of sale will used.

The energy chief said they are also looking at other types of privatization. "We are trying to see if we can group the gencos based on type. So far, sentiments of investors show that they want to run the same type of gencos," he said.

It is expected that Napocor will sell its transmission and generation assets with 18 months after the signing of the Republic Act 9136 or Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA). The privatization of transmission assets is scheduled in the early part of 2002 to be followed by the sale of the gencos in the second and third quarter. – Donnabelle Gatdula