Pacifica eyes IPPA contracts for three power plants

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed Pacifica Inc. disclosed its plan yesterday to participate in the bidding for independent power producer administrator (IPPA) of National Power Corp. (Napocor) contracts.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company said it would be entering into a joint venture partnership with local power firm G7 Megapower Corp. to strengthen its bid for the IPPA contracts.

According to Pacifica, the partnership will be eyeing mostly the hydropower contracts to be put on the auction block by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the state entity formed to handle the privatization of Napocor assets and contracts, in the latter part of the year.

Specifically, Pacifica is eyeing to become the IPPA for the 345-megawatt San Roque, 70-megawatt Bakun and 30-megawatt Benguet hydro facilities.

“One of the business purposes of the corporation is to construct and maintain power plants; therefore, Pacifica is expanding its business opportunities into power-related activities,” the company said.

Pacifica is currently engaged in build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects as well as in real estate and bio-ethanol fuel business. 

The company also plans to venture into infrastructure and real state development with Green Square Properties Inc. for the Pacific Coast City project. The project covers a vast land area of 28,000 hectares extending into several provinces, primarily Aurora, Quezon, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Tarlac and Pampanga.

PSALM has issued the invitation to bid for the 345-megawatt San Roque, 70-MW Bakun and 30-MWBenguet hydroelectric power plants scheduled on Nov. 11.

These plants are under BOT contracts between Napocor and the consortium of Japanese firm Marubeni Corp. and US company Sithe Energies Inc. for San Roque and Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) for Bakun and Benguet.

These  three IPPA contracts accounted for 11 percent of Napocor’s total third party contracted output.

Recently, San Miguel Corp.’s San Miguel Energy Corp. and the Aboitiz-owned Therma Luzon Inc. bagged the first batch of IPP contracts put on the auction earlier this month.            

PSALM emphasized that a bidder could only win one IPP contract to check concerns regarding market dominance.

The third phase in the IPPA selection process will involve the sale of the 1,200-MW contracted capacity on the Ilijan natural gas plant, which has a take-or-pay contract with its gas suppliers.

PSALM expects to generate an estimated P13 billion for the IPPs privatization. — Donnabelle Gatdula