12 companies submit bids for $40-M Cebu-Mactan interconnection project

A total of 12 companies submitted their respective bids for the $40-million Cebu-Mactan power interconnection project of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco).

During the two-envelope bidding system held last Friday, Transco recognized the bids of Meiden, China State Construction Engineering Corp./China National Water, Alstom, China National Electric Equipment Corp., Kanematsu/J. Power Systems, China National Technical Import Export Corp., ABB/Kinden Consortium, Mitsubishi, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Xian, Siemens and Daewoo/Hyundai Engineering.

One of the bidders, the Japanese group of Kanematsu and J. Power Systems, won the first auction last July 30 for the $68.5-million Leyte-Cebu leg of Transco’s interconnection project.

The Cebu-Mactan project aims to reinforce the line’s capacity of only 40 megawatts (MW) to 200 MW.

Should the project gets awarded by the end of this year, the construction and completion of the project are expected by Jan. 2004 and Oct.2005, respectively.

Aside from Cebu-Mactan, Transco has five other major transmission projects lined up, including the $68.5 million Leyte-Cebu interconnection scheduled for completion by Dec. 2004.

The Leyte-Cebu project, on the other hand, aims to increase the transfer capacity of the existing line by 200 MW and in turn provide greater stability to the Cebu-Negros-Panay power grid by making available to Cebu the indigenous and cheaper geothermal power from Tongonan, Leyte.

Another project set for completion by the second quarter of next year is the Leyte-Bohol interconnection project which aims to increase the transfer capacity of the line from the current 40 MW to 100 MW.

Transco is also fast-tracking the implementation of other projects such as the $48-million Negros-Panay uprating project, the P2.5-billion Negros-Cebu project and the $354-million Leyte-Mindanao project. These are scheduled for completion in 2005-2006 except for Leyte-Mindanao which has not been committed for implementation until 2011.