First Gen eyes 2 geothermal plants

MANILA, Philippines - First Gen Corp., the largest renewable energy company in the Philippines, is bidding for the Bacon-Manito (Bacman) and Unified Leyte geothermal power plants’ supply contracts scheduled to be auctioned off by Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) next year.

On the sidelines of the company’s special stockholders’ meeting yesterday, First Gen president Federico Lopez said they are looking to participate in the bidding for the National Power Corp. assets.

“We are looking at areas where we are right now. We are eyeing maybe Bacman power plants and Unified Leyte geothermal plants’ independent power producer administrator (IPPA),” Lopez said.

PSALM said it will privatize some 70 percent of the IPP contracts of Napocor next year.

The state privatization agency for the power sector has included Bacman in the first batch of assets to be sold by PSALM in 2010.

“Generally, we’re looking at achieving 70 percent IPPAs by the first quarter of 2010. Whether Unified Leyte will be part of that is subject to evaluation,” PSALM vice president Conrad Tolentino said.

But since the wholesale electricity spot market is not yet operational in the Visayas, only a portion of the contracted capacity of the Unified Leyte plants being supplied to the Luzon grid will be covered by the third batch of IPPA appointments.

At present, First Gen, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Energy Development Corp. (EDC) runs the Unified Leyte plants which include the 125-megawatt Upper Mahiao plant turned over to EDC by California Energy in June 2006, the 232-MW Malitbog and 180-MW Mahanagdong plants also from California Energy in July 2007; and the 51-MW optimization plants turned over by Ormat in September 2007.

EDC owns the Bacman Geothermal Production Field (BGPF) in Sorsogon and supplies steam to the Bacman power plants, located in the towns of Bacon and Manito in Albay with total capacity of 150 MW, which are being run by Napocor.