DMCI Power Corp. will bid for the 90-megawatt (MW) baseload power requirement of five electric cooperatives in the Visayas region in 2011.
Run by the Consunji family, DMCI Power is putting up a 200-MW coal-fired power facility in Concepcion, Iloilo.
Aside from DMCI, California Energy and Global Power of the Metrobank Group are also eyeing to bid for this new market.
Wilfred Billena, Iloilo Electric Cooperative I general manager, told reporters who covered the recent Visayas multisectoral power consulative meeting organized by the Department of Energy (DOE), that they plan to award the suppy contract by August this year.
Billena said Ileco I, along with Ileco II and III, Guimaras Electric Cooperative, Capiz EC and Antique EC, all prefer a single common supplier.
“Its better to get power from only one source so we can get a good price for buying in bulk,” he said.
He said they will send out the invitation for tenders within this week.
“We designed our requirement for leverage purposes in order to get the best price. Otherwise, you cannot a good price,” he explained.
He said aside from the baseload requirement, they would also need another 60 MW for their peaking load.
“We need 90-megawatts of baseload capacity for a 24-hour, seven-day a week operation. Aside from that, if we finish the competitive bidding for our baseload requirements, we will also hold a bidding for our peaking requirements,” he said.
Billena said they expect to bid out the peaking load requirement by middle of November this year.
He said unlike baseload, they would be tapping different power firms to supply their peaking requirement.
“We are targeting one baseload plant. It will be difficult if we source it from different companies or generation plants. Perhaps for the peaking, we can tap different plants. You cannot get a good price for that if you tap different plants,” he said.
He said in choosing the supplier, they would evaluate price and reliability as major considerations.
At present, the cooperative buys its power at its supplier at P6.50 per kilowatthour.