Aboitiz takes over Pagbilao plant

MANILA, Philippines - Therma Luzon Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC), has assumed dispatch control of the 700-megawatt (MW) contracted capacity of the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant in Quezon province. 

Therma Luzon submitted the highest offer of $691 million for the IPP administrator (IPPA) contract of the Pagbilao plant in a competitive bid conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) on Aug. 28. 

This amount represents the current value of the series of monthly payments using PSALM’s discount rates from October 2009 to August 2025.

 “Securing the IPPA contract for the Pagbilao capacity fits very nicely in Aboitiz Power’s strategy of building a portfolio of generation assets that will be competitive in the long term and complementary to each other. We think a combination of hydro plants to handle the peak load, and coal and geothermal plants for the base load makes a lot of sense,” APC president Erramon Aboitiz said

As administrator, Therma Luzon is responsible for procuring the plant’s fuel requirements and trading the electricity it generates to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).  

“The success of the IPPA will forever change the dynamics of the Philippine power industry. Not only will this bring us closer to open access but with a private administrator going hand in hand with a rapidly improving spot market, we can assure the public that we are going to offer competitive rates that will, in the long run, result to affordable rates for the consumers by exploring ways to make things better and more efficient,” APC vice president for project development Wong Bacareza added.

Given only less than a month to close the deal, the project development team delivered all items for closing in record time on Sept. 24, paving the way for the turnover on Oct. 1, 2009.