10 firms vie to supply power to Subic

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has set for March 6 the public bidding for the right to distribute power inside the Subic Freeport.

SBMA Chairman Felicito C. Payumo said over the weekend that there are at least 10 firms which indicated interest in the Subic power project.

These are: the Aboitiz Group; Mirant; Miescor; Alston T&D; MCA Power; Philippine Power Distributors Corp.; Harty Inc./Maiden; Obias, Ramos, Consunji Law Office; Pargon Consolidated; and Mactan Electric Co.

Payumo said the interested bidders would have to submit three separate envelopes containing their separate offers for pre-qualification, technical offer and financial offer.

Although 10 firms bought tender documents, Payumo admitted that not all 10 are expected to submit a formal bid.

In fact, Payumo said that the SBMA would be happy if only four to five firms actually submit a bid.

The interested bidders, Payumo explained, would have to offer a lower rate to distribute power within the Subic Freeport.

At present, the SBMA charges a distribution fee of P1 per kilowatt hour.

The SBMA would still source the power from the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Napocor recently entered into an agreement with Mirant, an American independent power producer, to supply power to the SBMA.

Payummo did not say how long the SBMA would evaluate the bid offer and when it would award the winning bid.

The current power distributor in the Subic Freeport is Enron Corp. which has been incurring system losses amounting to about P380 million. Enron Corp. of the US is involved in the biggest corporate accounting scandal.